Gathering Darkness: Bio-Merge
by RECKLESS SOLDIER-MS
Summary: Dragon Age, Mass Effect and Star Was Knights of the Old Republic crossover: A cult that spans three universes, joins their worlds together in a plot to destroy the governments that have wronged them. The Grey Warden, Revan the prodigal knight and Commander Shepard must join together to stop the dark cult and save their new world from total destruction.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Age, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, or Mass Effect.

Three franchises from one great studio, these RPGs have been some of my favourite games, from the moment I first played KOTOR many years ago. The variations in each playthrough, the characters and choices present in each one and the elements of not just gameplay, but relationship building that Bioware has developed with each game it has released.

This Mini-series, as well as being a Tie in to a story called The Redeemer I am working on, also stands on its own, serving as a potential beginning of a larger series featuring these three franchises. Characters that will be featured prominently in this fic are on the front cover, but more characters will appear. I based the Warden's design off of Goblin Slayer, Shepard is default look and under the mask Revan is the face model with the long brown hair (my look for him in most o my playthroughs and most videos I've seen too).

* * *

Gathering Darkness: Bio-Merge

Chapter 1: Merged

'Six.'

SLASH!

'Seven.'

BOOM!

'Eight, no, nine now!"

SLAM!

'And that's ten.'

He opened the palm of his hand, releasing a blast of fire that burnt the nest. As the children burned and screamed, he looked out for more. But the brood mother was already dead, her guts and entrails had decorated the cave. When the last of its spawn stopped squirming, and succumbed to the flames, he turned away.

"Twenty two," he counted.

Once he was further enough from the darkspawn caves, he removed a bit of chalk stone from his pack and etched another line into the back of his shield. It was the eighteenth day in the deep roads. His rations had run dry, his water was draining and he was operating on roughly thirty hours without sleep. Poultices and mana potions were keeping him going, as well as the adrenaline of combat, but he knew it was only a matter of time before he crashed. Continuing to walk through the deep roads, he lit up a torch with his fire magic and analysed the caverns. A month ago, he had forestalled his journey to do a job for the Inquisition. Or whatever it was now that it wasn't the Inquisition. His old friend Leliana hadn't been big on the specifics, except that one of the Inquisitors companions had been an elf god all along and was trying to destroy the world (or that was at least a simplified version). Her contacts had caught wind of a suspicious mage entering the uncharted areas of the deep roads. As the closest expert on the deep roads, he offered to help, it meant killing some darkspawn after all.

'Water,' he noted, looking up at the ceiling, a small puddle had formed beneath it. 'I must be under a river, or maybe the ocean!'

Tracing his hand over the puddle, he scanned it with his magic. It wasn't really fit to drink, water wasn't really the issue. He could always put ice and fire together to conjure water. What the real problem was, was his eyes. He could feel them getting heavier, and his throat felt thin. His stomach too growled, and he could smell the sweat and dirt underneath his armour. At some point, if he didn't stop he would make himself ill.

'It would have been safer to go with a party, but it's been a long time since you travelled with a party,' he thought.

The corridor began to brighten up, and the warden saw a series of torches leading to a tunnel. It had recently been dug by the darkspawn, but the way down it had been lit with torches. Which meant the darkspawn weren't using it, they could see in the dark and had no real use for torches. Following the path, he snuffed out his torch and drew his sword. He couldn't sense any darkspawn in the distance, but that didn't mean everything was safe. Continuing to walk through the tunnel, he narrowed his eyes as he reached the end and saw what the darkspawn had built.

It was a circular chamber, twice the size of the Harrowing ritual room at the top of the circle tower. But the function seemed very much the same, etched into the stone floor were glyphs associated with the fade, matching the kind on the floor of the Harrowing ritual room. But there were heavy modifications, hiding behind a group of rocks, the warden looked at the gathered group. They were all in cloaked garbs, standing in circles drawn with blood. There were twenty people in total, all of them looking to the centre of the ritual circle. The man was using a bottle to spread lyrium dust over the circle he stood in. He had his sleeves exposed, revealing an assortment of tattoos, all of them symbols that the warden had seen in spell books at the circle. The man was an elf, as indicated by his lanky features and long ears.

'Guess that explains Leliana's reports on a suspicious elf mage,' the warden thought.

He narrowed his eyes at the elf. The mage dropped particles of a blue crystal on the floor. At first glance it seemed like lyrium, but it didn't have the same feel as it.

"My friends," the mage suddenly spoke.

All of their eyes turned to him. He raised his arms, basking in their praise and attention. Lifting up his head, he began his address.

"We are the lowest of the low, we have lost everything because of the actions of people in this world, the disasters they created. Loghain abandoning the army at Ostagar cost some of us family, Anders blowing up the Chantry robbed us of loved ones and plunged the world into chaos, the breach led to the world's near destruction, the choices of Orlais' empress robbed us of homes. You all stand here, because no one in the world cared about you, no one in the world cares about you. I am here to say enough, no more will those in power decide that our lives are worthless, no longer will they decide how the world should be. It is time for us to rob the choice from them, behold," he reached into his robe and pulled out an arm.

It had decayed, but the Warden recognised the symbol etched into the hand.

'The Inquisitor's severed hand, damn it,' he stood, ready to intervene.

Suddenly, an arm wrapped around him and threw him across the room. The warden used his ice magic to slow his fall, but he still smacked his back against a wall. He looked towards his opponent, a giant, though it had runes carved into its skin. It was a type of control spell with blood magic. Getting up off of the floor, the warden ran towards the giant. He sidestepped at the last minute, dodging the giant's hand. Then he jumped off of the appendage, stabbing his sword through the giant's eye. Surging thunder through the blade, he electrocuted the giant until both its eye balls exploded.

"Spill your blood my friends, spill it in ways those with power never would, let this be the evidence of our anger and our pride, our lives mean nothing to us, because they have left us with nothing," the elf mage spoke with conviction in his voice, though the warden recognised it more as fanaticism.

He yanked his blade out of the giant's head and broke off into a run towards the ritual circle. Suddenly, there was a surge of red energy, and it came from the Inquisitor's old hand. The warden kept his shield raised, the circle was generating a force that slipped him back. He looked towards the circle and saw the people scream. Energy ripped their bodies apart. Some kind of wires formed on this arms, their flesh took on a hue that reminded the warden of the skin of demons. He saw the people in the circle change, turning into some kind of darkspawn variant. Plates of armour covered their chests, nozzles on their arms and their feet shifted into clawed talons. The new creatures roared, drawn into even more of a frenzy. But the elf mage was left unchanged. He simply floated off of the circle, energy surging around him. The Inquisitor's hand began to melt, seeping into the elf's. He held his fist up high and laughed.

"You're too late Amell," the mage cackled.

The Warden looked up at the mage, his sword raised to fight. With a motion of his hand, the mage called forth a breach. Everything was a blur to the warden after that. His perception of the world was distorted by darkness and he heard a great bellow, a sound that echoed through his mind. He lost his balance, falling to his knees. It was as if there had been an earthquake, as if a tornado was right in front of him.

'Impossible in the deep roads,' the warden thought.

Uncertain of what was happening, he tried to focus on the mage in front of him. He saw the mage, he was floating in the air, the ground beneath him was gone. There was some kind of monster behind him, it was massive, bigger than anything the warden had seen before. Most of it was covered by darkness, but he could see that there it had a head of some kind, wings bigger than a mountain and tentacles that were around the creature. Four eyes glowed out of the creatures head, which looked like a dragon's maw, the back of its head curved, possessing no horns.

"This is the price you will all pay, across three worlds, the kingdoms of Thedas, the republic, and the Citadel Council, YOUR GALAXIES WILL BURN! AND FROM THE ASHES! I WILL BUILD A BETTER WORLD!"

The warden suddenly began to feel a lack of air. He let go of his sword and clawed at his throat, kicking his legs about.

"I am sorry truly, you seemed to be one of the only leaders who cared about the world, but you will not be here to see the new one," the mage said, before thrusting his hand forward.

The Warden was thrown out of the darkness, and into something else entirely. It seemed like endless darkness, save for stars in the distance. He had looked up at the stars enough times to recognise them.

'Is this what I've been looking at, is this what lies beyond our world?' the Warden wondered.

He thrashed around, trying to find something to grab. But there was nothing, just this...space. He gasped, but could find nothing, feeling his throat freeze. It felt difficult to move his fingers too, his whole body was in pain.

'I'm, I'm dying, I'm going to suffocate, if I don't flash freeze first,' he thought.

Images flashed before his eyes, the battle of Ostagar, meeting so many of his friends. Sten, Oghren, Zevran, Alistair and Leliana, his dog Alpha, Shale and Morrigan. He thought of his teacher Irving, his cousin Marian and her husband Fenris, the children he had only met a few days ago. As he stopped struggling, he saw those whom weren't with him anymore. Wynn, someone who may as well have been a mother to him, dead because of the damn mage rebellion. Loghain, whom sacrificed himself so that...

'No, I refuse,' his eyes glowed red as he squeezed his hands into fists. 'I refuse to waste, HIS SACRIFICE!" Daylen Amell screamed, his form becoming like that of a ghost, before darkness enveloped him.

* * *

Cora Harper smiled as she spoke with the Pathfinder, Sara Ryder's face appeared before her as if she was really on the ship. But truthfully, it was just a projection from the Quantum Entanglement Communicator. A few months had passed since the Andromeda project's successful colonisation of Meridian. Sara was currently on humanity's new home, assisting with awakening colonists from cryo sleep. The Tempest was in another system, testing upgrades, her crew reduced in their numbers. PeeBee was on another world, looking into a Remnant vault. And Vetra was visiting her sister on the Nexus. Which left Cora in charge of Liam Kosta, a former cop and member of the original human pathfinder team, Jaal, an Angaran native of Andromeda and Nakmor Drack, a Krogan veteran.

"There's definitely been an improvement in the Propulsion system, it took ten minutes off of our flight time," Cora stated.

"The research team at the Nexus projected a fifteen cut in flight time, guess they'll be disappointed," Sara said.

"How are things on Meridian?" Cora asked.

"We've got a few people up, more hands means we can get housing up faster, we've managed to get some of the Remnant drones to help out, but we could still use some more help so get back as soon as you can," Sara explained.

"No problem Pathfinder, no," Cora paused.

Sara's image flickered for a moment, the air grew heavier and Cora felt the Tempest shake. On the bridge, Salarian pilot Kallo Jath looked out into space, everything seemed to be distorted for a moment. Then the planets changed, one appearing right in front of the Tempest. Caught in the gravity well, Kallo jerked the controls and pulled the Tempest up.

"What's happening out there?" Jaal asked over the comm.

"Drive core just flickered and then lit up like a storm, felt that gravity shift, Kallo?" the Tempest's chief engineer Gil Brodie called out.

"Sara, have we got you back?" Cora asked.

"Something really weird just happened here guys, wait..." Sara paused, her image fading for a moment.

Then the sound of explosions began echoing over the channel. Liam ran to Cora's side, his face mirroring her shock.

"Guys, ships have hit Meridian's atmosphere, they're attacking us," Sara suddenly appeared, holding her rifle.

There was an explosion and Sara let out a cry, lunging forward and out of view. Cora and Liam heard her breathing and shooting her rifle. There was something else too, some kind of gunfire sound that neither Cora or Liam had heard before. It wasn't their weapons, Remnant or Kett.

"Guys, how long until you can get back? We need help here!"

When the line went dead, Cora and Liam ran to the bridge.

"Kallo, get us back to Meridian," Cora commanded.

"I would Cora, but we're not where we were before, these stars don't match anything in our records," Kallo said.

"What the hell's going on?" Drack demanded, stomping onto the bridge.

His words matched the thoughts of everyone in the galaxy.

* * *

They listened, listened to all manner of communication and alien languages through the communicator. Samantha Traynor was adjusting the settings, doing what she could to boost the signal, and Liara T'Soni was aiding her, using her Intel as Shadow Broker, and her extensive knowledge of alien cultures to identify languages and other reference points in the communication chatter.

"MAYDAY! MAYDAY! CALLING ALL STRIKE TEAMS! THE NEXUS IS UNDER ATTACK!"

"ANY REPUBLIC SHIPS IN THE AREA!"

"Coruscant has been breached, unknown enemy..."

Liara and Sam traded uneasy expressions. All of it sounded very new to them. Their commander however had a look of anger across his face, and he narrowed his eyes at the Quantum communicator.

"Try to get a hold of Admiral Hackett, find out what's happened and how far spread it is," said Commander John Shepard, First Human Spectre, captain of the Normandy and as confused as the rest of the galaxy was.

He walked out of the communications centre, making his way through CIC, taking data pads from crewmen. The man stopped as his first officer and best friend passed him.

"Garrus," Shepard said.

"Bit of a panic on the lower deck Shepard, quite a sight on the observation decks though, never seen star phenomenon quite like what I've just seen," Garrus said.

"I'll have to check it out sometime, how are our weapons?"

"Please Shepard, you know what my answer is going to be," Garrus shrugged his shoulders as he walked off.

"More calibrations," Shepard muttered.

He made his way to the bridge, joining his fellow alliance officer and friend Ashley Williams.

"What's the situation Joker?" he asked the helmsman.

"Still a whole lot of questions, my baby's a little sluggish, hit a debris field earlier and almost got eaten by some kind of worm," Joker explained.

"That was not a joke," said EDI, the android squad mate and AI of the Normandy sat in the co-pilot seat.

"Everything looks different, dirty, I've never heard of space being 'dirty' before," Ashley said.

"Yeah," Shepard muttered.

There was a yellow mixed in with the black of space, all of the stars were blue, so different from what Shepard remembered looking up at from Mindoir as a child.

"Our star charts no longer seem to be relevant Commander, our previous position was the Artemis Tau cluster, now we are in a completely different system," EDI explained.

"A sudden shift in time and space, new factions mentioned on broadcasts, and alien languages we've never encountered before. This is impossible, but then again I would have said the same thing about the Reapers a few years ago," Shepard explained.

"What are you thinking Shepard?" Ashley asked.

"I think that..."

Suddenly, there was a great boom and the Normandy shook.

"We've just been hit, some kind of plasma based discharge, from a ship of unknown design and origin," EDI stated.

"Slipping into evasive manoeuvres," Joker said.

"Ship speed has increased, several more heat sources are breaking off of the ship, fighters of some kind," EDI added.

"Find us a way out of here Joker!"

"Yes sir!"

* * *

**"MRAAOR!"**

**"I know Big Z, I always thought you smelt, but that armour, phew!"**

**"Shows what you know little girl, this armour is built for hunting, the smell is for blocking out his own scent from whatever he's hunting."**

**"A little something you picked up on Kashyyk?"**

**"This man is definitely a warrior, I know scars like that."**

**"But that armour, how does someone from a back water world that still uses iron and shields manage to end up in space, and how did he survive for that matter?"**

**"I can sense massive amounts of energy inside of him, I think this man is the same as the beings attacking the republic, a being capable of manipulating energy and the elements."**

**"It's more than that, I felt it, this man in a act of total desperation drew a massive amount of power into his body, making it exist in two different dimensions at the same time. I'm going to wake him, be ready!"**

**"Oh I will be ready to shoot this meat bag master!"**

**"Awaken, awaken NOW!"**

"LOGHAIN!" the Warden yelled.

He fell off of the table he was set on, stumbled forward and leant against the wall. The material felt like metal, but so much different from the alloys he had touched in Thedas. He let out a few deep breaths, wiping the sweat off of his brow. Feeling people's eyes on his back, he turned and faced those whom had awakened him. They were all prepared to fight him. Three held the same sort of swords, energy swords. One was a cat lady of some kind, using a blue energy blade. The second was an old, dark skinned human man, bald and with a rough beard. He held in his hand a green energy blade. The third was another human, young and beautiful, though her expression was firm. With both hands she gripped a staff that had two yellow energy blades attached to it.

Alongside them was a tall, human shaped but furry creature, holding a red and green sword. Next to him, trying to keep on his side, but always protected by him was a teenage girl. Oddly, she had blue skin and some kind of tentacle like tails on her head. She held in her hand some kind of device that she had pointed at him. It was the same kind of device a brown armoured man was pointing at him, though he certainly didn't stand like a man.

'Some kind of golem perhaps?' the warden wondered.

Two other humans held the same kind of devices. The brown haired one wore an orange uniform jacket and held two of the devices in his hands. The more rugged, grey haired one had a larger, cylinder shaped device in his hands. Next to him was an odd looking metal creature, its little head bopping as it beeped. Only one of the group didn't have a weapon drawn. He was a brown haired man, standing with his arms raised diplomatically.

"Who the hell are you people? What's going on?" the warden asked.

"We were hoping you could tell us the same thing, let's start over, my name is Revan and unless my instincts are wrong I believe we are from completely different universes!"

Next Chapter 2: The Cult of Merged sorrows

* * *

Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter, wanted to keep it short and to the point, with future chapters being longer. Next time, the antagonists are fully introduced.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, Dragon Age and Mass Effect

The villains are my original creations.

Another update, for what may be another favourite series of mine. Three great Bioware game universes joined together.

Having begun to recently play another re-released Bioware published game on the Xbox network, I may possibly include just a couple of characters or references from that. But the focus is still very much the three franchises I'm currently including.

* * *

Gathering Darkness: Bio-Merge

Chapter 2: The Cult of Merged Sorrows

Red lyrium, Reaper tech and demonic possession had augmented once ordinary men into elite fighters. Monsters that were capable of decimating republic border outposts. Republic soldiers fended off wave after waves of the cultists. Mages led the charge, bound in their red robes, with Mandalorian vambrances and armour and Omni-tech glowing across their staves. On citadel council worlds, Krogan faced off in brutal combat with equally fierce races, Wookie's corrupted by the Blight, their eyes glowing red and bodies as big as bears. Then, Mandalorians landed on the field with their jetpacks, firing their blasters and missiles at the Krogan lines. There was no fear from the Krogan, if anything they revelled in the chance to fight a warrior race, through combat a respect between these races formed that was stronger than the Krogan and Wookie bond.

In space, Turian and Asari fleets were suddenly attacked by ships exciting light speed. A fleet of cult ships based on the Sith designs, though painted with lines of red. Alongside their turbo lasers, they launched into the Asari and Turian ships drill missiles. The missiles attached to the hull of the ship, and the boarding parties inside entered the ships. Warriors in red lyrium armour ignited red light sabres in the Asari ship. The Asari defenders fired their rifles and attacked with biotics. A singularity was suddenly shrunk by one red warrior's lightning. He then launched a blast of fire from the singularity, burning the soldiers in front of him. Other warriors rushed the Asari ranks, cutting them down with their light sabres, matching their biotics with the less flashy, but no less devastating force. In the Turian ships, Kath Hounds corrupted by the Blight and Reaper tech ran through the hallways, suddenly teleporting behind ranks of Turian defenders, sinking their teeth into their jugulars. Ships of the Citadel council forces fell, and the cult ships flew towards the Citadel colony worlds.

* * *

Val Royeaux

A single night was all it took for the defences of the fortress to collapse. How could Templars defend against the likes of blasters, biotics and artillery. Cult troopers had dominated the grand hall of the Divine. The Cathedral had partly collapsed from the assault, and a few Chantry priests had been taken hostage. Divine Victoria herself was bound in chains, chains of energy formed from technology the likes of which Thedas had never seen before. Leliana was confident in her abilities to pick locks, the best locksmiths in Orlais couldn't match her, but she knew she was helpless against what was binding her. It was just too advanced, magic she understood, not whatever the cult had brought to the lands of Thedas.

"After all these years, I finally see a Divine on her knees," a voice said at the end of the Cathedral.

He walked between the benches, towards the alter Leliana had been put in front of. His clothes were red, but the armour over those clothes was black and gold. A twisted fusion of a warden and Inquisitor helmet partly covered his face, save for his glowing red eyes and smirk. The red eyes did not remind Leliana of a man she used to know, rather they made her recall the eerie glow of red lyrium, which she saw when the spy master of the Inquisition.

"Though I was hoping the Divine would be more deserving of such treatment, lift her up," he commanded the troopers behind Leliana.

The man took hold of Leliana's chin, turning her face and looking at her.

"I had heard that the new Divine was beautiful and kind, that the world she was building was one of compassion and fairness, for your efforts you have my respect and gratitude," the man explained.

"You attacked Orlais, decimated our cities and now hold myself and my clerics hostage, and you express gratitude to us," Leliana said, her voice thick with objection and defiance.

For though Leliana prided her reign as the divine as one that abolished the circle towers and encouraged equality between the races, she was not unwilling to fight or even kill to protect it.

"You have my gratitude, for at least trying to change things," the stranger said. "But it is too little too late!" his voice turned into a snarl as he raised his hand.

A staff suddenly appeared in his hand, surrounded by red lightning. Looking at the altar with a glare, the mage threw a bolt of lightning that blew the holy relic apart.

"Drag them to a transport ship, and burn this wretched place to the ground," the stranger said.

"Who are you anyway?" Leliana demanded.

"We are those wronged by the Chantry, the council, the republic, and we will not rest until all of these organisations are destroyed," the stranger raised his hand, creating multiple bolts of lightning that sparked fires all around the cathedral, blowing portions of the rock and breaking apart some of the floors.

* * *

Deep Space

The Normandy was being chased by an unknown enemy. It was a situation many in the new universe were sharing. Joker easily avoided the Turbo lasers fired by the pursuing capital ship. But the fighters were a more difficult opponent. The Normandy swerved and dived, but it would need to build up speed, speed it couldn't build up with the fighters. They fired their blasters, hitting the surface of the Normandy and triggering fires on some of the decks. In Engineering, Tali coordinated a few rescue crews as Gabby and Ken saw to the damaged propulsion systems.

"Any identification so far EDI?" Shepard asked, running to the bridge.

"Are you kidding me? All we've had is cannon fire, maybe that's a greeting where they're from," Joker said.

"What do you mean?"

"What Jeff is referring to Commander is the fact that scans have revealed alloys on the ships not identified on any periodic table, as well as energy signatures that do not match any researched before. The enemy ship also appeared to have used a form of faster of light travel not aided by Mass Effect fields," EDI explained. "However, they do possess AI technology similar to our own, it matching the kind Cerberus researched when they created me!"

Her eyes flickered for a moment and she collapsed on the chair.

"EDI!" Joker turned to his co-pilot and girlfriend in concern.

At that moment, an object struck the ship. Joker turned to the monitor and saw that the top of the Normandy was highlighted red.

"We've got some kind of breach, something's infiltrating the internal circuits, its burnt through the weapon's cooling system," Joker explained.

"Commander, Jeff, I am engaged in electronic warfare with the pursuing ship's AI, it is brutal and powerful," EDI flinched, struggling to even speak.

"Damn it, whatever is inside the Normandy is working its way to Engineering," Jeff said.

"Tali, seal off the access corridor, Allers you'd better get out of there, calmly make your way to the elevator, Ashley meet me there with a gun," Shepard commanded over the radio.

He ran to the elevator, drawing from his back his N7 Valkyrie rifle, when the elevator door opened, battle space reporter Diana Allers stepped out, behind her, clad in her blue clothes and holding an M-15 Vindicator was Ashley. She nodded to Shepard as he pushed the button to take them to Engineering. By the time they got there, Shepard's additional squad mate was already there. Javik kept his particle rifle at the ready, his four eyes sneering as he scanned the ceiling.

"Try not to blow any holes in the wall Shepard," Tali said over the radio.

"No promises Tali," Shepard activated his Omni-tool and began scanning the ceiling. "Anything?" he looked to Javik who sneered.

"The Quarian didn't want us to blow up the walls, but that is exactly where the enemy is," Javik stated.

Green energy coursed around him, his biotics manifested, preparing to strike whatever would melt through the walls. Shepard switched his Omni-tool to blade mode and Ashley aimed her rifle at a glow of orange that appeared on the wall. Multiple glows began to form, two, six, ending at ten. Shepard braced himself, before the melted sections of the ceiling came down as molten slag. The enemies came down from the ceiling, some kind of spider like robots that were neither Geth designed or Reaper. Ashley and Shepard fired their rifles, breaking apart some of the droids. Red crystals of some kind had been imbedded in their armour, releasing pulses that disrupted shields. Javik slammed several of the droids into the walls and fired his particle beam in a wide arc, cutting three apart. Ashley slammed her foot down hard on one of the droids, breaking it. Then she fired her rifle at the others, ejecting the spent thermal clip. Shepard released a few bursts from his rifle before slashing one of the droids in half.

"Joker, you getting us out of here?" Shepard asked.

"Little difficult when I've got annoying little bugs to deal with," Joker said.

"You're welcome to come down here," Ashley retorted as more droids came down from the ceiling.

One imbedded itself in the wall, beginning to melt through it. Javik however delivered a biotic push, crushing the droid.

On the pursuing capital ship of the cult, the captain of the vessel stood watching the Normandy. His four eyes glared at the ship. He wore a red military styled uniform, some of his yellow skin was brown, a sign of burnt skin for his species. The Batarian man turned to his first officer, a Twi'lek woman, green skinned with her species signature head tails and signature beauty expected of females of her species.

"Captain Dalak, Our fighters have confirmed that the Normandy's propulsion systems are damaged to the point where it will not escape our pursuit, from this range we could destroy the ship," she explained.

"Well done Camaria, but we will be capturing the Normandy, not destroying it," Captain Dalak said.

"Sir, with respect, I have heard from the crew of your universe how tenacious Commander Shepard is, his reputation for escaping death, surely it would be more logical to simply destroy the ship."

Dalak turned to Camaria and huffed.

"Why did you join the cult Camaria?" he asked.

"That is a deeply personal question Captain," she said.

"I conducted my business in Citadel space, not slavery but mercenary work. I never agreed with my people's fascination with slavery, so I never particularly had any love for my home land. What I did love though was my family, and the man who killed my family is on that ship," Dalak narrowed his eyes at the Normandy and raised his hand. "If the next wave of droids fails to cripple the Normandy's systems, then you will have permission to destroy the ship!"

"Yes sir," Camaria said, then gave the order across CIC.

Joker felt the Normandy shake from another shot from the fighters. He was able to fire one of the javelins, destroying one of the pursuers. But they were nimble, what they lacked in their top speed and durability, they made up for with manoeuvrability. Inside the engineering division, Tali was done putting out another fire when she saw several spider droids in the vents. She summoned her combat drone, getting it to hit the droids with electronic pulses.

"If this keeps up, they'll either damage the drive core, or severe its connection to key systems," she said.

"We need a way out and quickly," Shepard said.

He shot a droid and then put his rifle on his back, switching to his M-11 Suppressor. After shooting a couple of droids, he contacted the bridge again.

"Bad time to chime in Commander, EDI looks like she's having some kind of seizure," Joker said.

"Garrus, report on the weapon's system, and if you say calibrating I'll..."

"Sorry commander, too busy calibrating the gun!"

Shepard cursed before he crushed a droid with his foot. The Normandy shook and an explosion blew open the area where the armoury previously was near CIC. Fires consumed the Captain's cabin, Shepard's models and personal affects were broken and spread across the floor. Liara ran out of her quarters, coughing due to the smoke inhalation from her consoles burning.

"Are you all right Liara?" Shepard asked.

"I'm fine John," Liara coughed.

She held her head, feeling an immense pain.

"There's something, Shepard, I feel, great hatred," she fainted, falling head first onto the floor.

"Liara," Shepard called out.

A droid suddenly jumped onto Shepard's back, releasing a pulse that made Shepard yell in agony. Cracks form on his left cheek, his Cerberus cybernetics glowing with his left eye. With great effort and a determined yell, Shepard yanked the droid off of his back, and threw it across the room. Ashley then shot the droid apart.

"Hold together, hold together," Joker chanted.

He widened his eyes, seeing something in the distance. Weighing his options, he determined the best course for the Normandy to survive and took his chance. Igniting what was left of the Normandy's thrusters, he pushed the Normandy towards what he saw.

"If anyone can hear me, this is the SSR Normandy, we need immediate support," Joker yelled into the radio.

One of the cult fighters, targeted the Normandy, preparing to release its missiles. Suddenly, a flurry of red bolts slammed into the fighter. Numerous red and silver, triangular fighters came out of the darkness of space, followed by a flurry of green turbo laser fire. The fighters began shooting at the fighters pursuing the Normandy, forming a defensive formation around it. In one of the fighters, a human man with dark hair flew alongside the Normandy. Though he couldn't see Joker, he knew that the Normandy's pilot must somehow be able to see him. The young man raised two fingers into a salute, smirking before he swerving and shooting down two fighters.

"All right Sol squadron, let's show these boys how to fly in our turf," the man said.

"Commander Biggs, that may be an inaccurate assessment, considering we may not even be in 'our turf'," said a Bothan with a wide girth.

"Whatever Porkins," Biggs said.

"It's Porko," the Bothan said.

"Like that's so much better," a blonde haired human woman said.

She shot down two fighters, then flew under the Normandy, intercepting a torpedo. Two fighters then came down either side of the Normandy, inside both two identical, blue skinned Twi'lek women targeted another group of fighters. Performing twists and crossing one another's flight paths, the twin fighters decimated their targets with a flurry of blaster fire. Joker caught sight of what he had seen in the distance. It was a fleet of ships, the likes of which he hadn't seen before. At the front was a red and silver hulled monster, the front of the ship had a hammerhead like shape and fired emerald beams from the cannons on its side. A weak signal came over the radio, the voice of a woman around Admiral Hackett's age.

"This is Admiral Dodonna with the republic fleet, we read you Normandy, follow our instructions and you just might make it through this, we have medical teams on standby, have your crew disarm themselves and fly to the Vigilance's hanger," she explained.

Left with little choice, Joker did as the admiral suggested. Chakwas and Garrus carried Liara into the medical bay, blue blood leaking from a cut on her head. In engineering, Ashley was supporting Shepard, who looked at his scarred visage through the window's reflection. His vision began to blur and he nearly collapsed.

"We made it Shepard, we made it," Ashley repeated to him, helping him walk to the elevator.

On the pursuing cult ship, Dalak turned away from the widow, putting his hands behind his back.

"Begin our retreat, get us out of this system," he commanded.

* * *

Coruscant

A shadow flew over the Republic, one that had decimated much of the fleet protecting the Republic's capital. Cult troopers marched through the streets, massive Eirochs from the Andromeda cluster and armoured Kath Hounds forced people into pens. Walls of energy trapped the prisoners, soldiers and civilians alike. Robed men and women, members of the Jedi order were dragged into circles, complex runes formed with blood. Cult mages then lit the runes up, drawing screams from the Jedi. Their bodies were ripped apart by the demons infesting them, turning them into abominations. Many buildings within the city had been set aflame, and gunships flew around the Chancellor's tower. Screams and the surge of electricity echoed through the Chancellor's quarters. A man in black and red armour walked through the corridors towards the Chancellor's room. A cloak was flapping over his right shoulder, an a smooth, silver light sabre was attached to his belt. When he walked into the room, the troopers turned to see the glowing red eyes of his helmet. They stepped aside, revealing a man in expensive robes kneeling on the floor, panting from the torture he was enduring. His tormentors stood over him, one a Twi'lek woman with red skin, a severed head tail and robotic arm being her most prominent features. She wore a red robe over a black body suit, lightning streaking from her finger tips. Beside her, a brown haired man with a black mask over his mouth stood with his arms crossed.

"Qira, Talos, that's enough," the new arrival said.

"Yes master," both said, stepping aside so that the masked man could look at their victim. "Supreme Chancellor Tol Cressa, at last we finally meet," he said.

"Whoever you are, my death changes nothing, the republic will still..." the masked man raised his hand, making the Chancellor gag and clutch at his throat.

No matter how hard the man struggled, the pressure on his throat didn't stop. The masked man lifted the Chancellor off of the floor, and two cult troopers grabbed him by his shoulders. The man gasped for air and coughed, panting and looking at the masked man in fear.

"My apprentices treated you unfairly, their hatred is often misguided, Qira grew up amongst Twi'lek migrants you see, but they were always driven away from any potential home. The republic preaches freedom and fairness, but it wasn't fair to her people, especially when the place they were able to settle on was one of the first places hit by the Mandalorians," the masked man explained.

"Is that what this is about? The Republic's actions when the Mandalorians began their war with us?" the chancellor asked.

"I understand you've based your career on the votes of the senate, on the 'will of the people', but the people were wrong to abandon those they could not see, those whom did not have a voice in that overpriced building you run your ridiculous hearings in. I understand you're just one cog in a machine that is the republic, a machine we of the Merged Sorrows intend to break down," again the masked man raised his hand and levitated the chancellor off of the floor.

Droids floated around the chancellor and the masked man, recording and displaying the event across the planet.

"We have already declared war on you, the Republic, the Citadel council, the Chantry, let this be a declaration of our intent," with a twist of his wrist, the masked man broke the helpless Chancellor's neck, much to the horror of the people watching.

* * *

Kirkwall

People had been gathered at the spot where the Chantry once was. It was nothing more than a ruin, the first casualty in the mage war triggered by the actions of a rebel mage. Now it had been turned into a staging ground for the declaration of intent. People had been gathered around a podium, to watch the Stranger. Cult troopers had surrounded much of the crowd, but it was the mechanical walkers really keeping anyone from doing anything. Even the captain of the Guard, Aveline Vallen was a prisoner. Amongst the crowd were two hooded men, a blonde haired dwarf with facial tattoos and a red haired dwarf with a thick bushy beard.

"The Intel said she would be here right?" the dwarf asked.

"Hush," said the elf.

They looked up at the Stranger as he whistled, signalling the crowd to stop whispering amongst themselves.

"This place was where much of the hardship that consumed this land began, or so some would lead you to believe. But the truth is, the hardships of Thedas began much earlier. It began when men tried to interpret the words and actions of another, Andraste, it began when she claimed to be bride of the Maker. It began when the very term god was made, because in truth, the Maker...IT'S NOTHING MORE THAN A SYMBOL TO ESTABLISH CONTROL OF THE WORLD!" he roared and the crowd began to yell in outrage.

A man with a poncho and hat on raised his blaster and fired a few bolts into the air. The crowd was silenced and the man span the pistol with his finger before putting it in his holster.

"The Chantry has claimed to represent the Maker, to embody the goodness of the world, yet it has orchestrated or even carried out genocide, it has trapped children, denying them the contact they would need to be human, to feel anything besides hatred or devotion to an organisation that abuses them and brainwashes them. An organisation that pretends it stands for equality, yet carries out acts of segregation and hatred, and continually fears and abuses that which it doesn't want to understand," the Stranger clicked his fingers and two troopers brought out their prisoner.

She was in a simple white robe, her religious symbols all taken from her. Roughly placed at the centre of the podium, mere feet from the Stranger, the red haired beauty looked through the crowd. Upon seeing the blonde elf reach for a knife at his belt, she subtly shook her head, an action he saw and understood.

"Leliana," the dwarf whispered.

"No," the elf grabbed him by his shoulder and shook his head.

"This one," the Stranger pointed his finger at Leliana. "She became Divine in the aftermath of the great breach in our world, and she strove to turn the Chantry into what it should be. She tore down the towers and established systems to empower mages to control their abilities, not imprison them. She encouraged equality, understanding the views of others, respecting their race and culture. She stands as perhaps the personification of all that could be good about the Chantry," he explained.

Slowly he raised his hand and electricity began to course through it. It gradually formed the silhouette of a blade protruding from his fist. The dwarf snarled, and the elf's grip on him tightened.

"Changing the Chantry though, is not our intent, the systems that created our sorrows will not survive the coming purge," the Stranger said.

"Maker, have mercy on their souls, guide them to your loving arms, guide all to your loving arms, lead us away from the darkness in this time of strife," Leliana put her hands together and prayed.

When the Stranger put the blade to her neck, she knelt, to better pray. But there was still no fear in her body language, or in her voice. And it wasn't out of fear, that she closed her eyes, but faith. The Stranger pulled his arm back.

"Goodbye my love!" she whispered.

The dwarf's yell was muffled by the elf's hand on his mouth, and the screams of the crowd. The Stranger grabbed the Divine's head and raised it up.

"The Republic, the Council, and ESPECIALLY THE CHANTRY! WILL ALL BE DESTROYED!" he roared.

Zevran looked up at the Stranger, holding the head of his friend in a declaration of intent. He grit his teeth together in pure fury. But now wasn't the time, he needed to deliver the news to his friend he and Oghren had to find the Warden.

Next Chapter 3: Meetings

* * *

Leliana's one of my favourite companions, so doing that was not easy. The Warden will find out later.

Next time, Shepard meets Admiral Dodonna and some members of the Jedi order. Plus the Warden and the Ebon Hawk crew land on a planet and meet some very lost Andromeda Iniative members.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect, Dragon Age or Star Wars

Another chapter, my last update for a week as I'm going to be in France

* * *

Gathering Darkness: Bio-Merge

Chapter 3: Meetings

_Goodbye, my love!_

After putting on his helmet, the Warden looked around the room. He'd suddenly had an uneasy feeling, not like what he would get whenever he sensed the Darkspawn, but more subtle. Shrugging that feeling aside, he walked out into the Ebon Hawk's meeting room, where the crew was assembled. Revan stood close to the brown haired woman in the brown clothes and the Warden could detect the subtle evidence of their care towards one another. There was a camaraderie amongst the crew, but it primarily revolved around their mutual loyalty to Revan. The Warden had seen it before, in kings, commanders, and imagined it was perhaps how some people came to support his cousin and the Inquisitor.

"So, what is going on?" the blue skinned girl asked.

"I suppose your society is too advanced to believe magic," the Warden said.

"I wouldn't say that, I at least keep an open mind, what you refer to as magic, could it be the force?" Revan asked.

The Warden opened the palm of his hand, forming a ball of flame.

"Can your force do that?" he asked.

"No it can't," the old man said gruffly.

Snuffing out the flame, the Warden then began an explanation. He told the crew of the Ebon Hawk some of the basics of his world. How his people referred to their current time as the Dragon Age. That there existed the main species of humans, elves, dwarves and Kossith, with the dark spawn residing in the deep roads and spiritual entities in the fade.

"A pocket dimension, fascinating," Revan muttered, then let the Warden continue.

He told them of the magic that manifested in humans, elves and Kossith and how for a time, the main church of Thedas had the mages kept in towers and trained.

"It sounds a lot like what the Jedi order does," the brown haired woman said.

"Except they aren't really prisoners, you were weren't you?" Revan asked.

The Warden nodded his head and quickly continued onto the mage rebellion. Then the breach, the Inquisition stopping it and the new Divine Victoria's reformation of the chantry and its policies. He explained that the political structure of his 'world' consisted of nations and kingdoms, referencing the Orlesian and Tevinter empires, the free cities of the Free Marches where nobles elected leaders and kingdoms such as Ferelden. Revan seemed completely fascinating, though some like the girl and her furry companion seemed more confused by the details.

"Your world is trapped in a primitive age, that explains the armour," the cat woman said.

"I suppose that's an accurate description, we make small developments with mechanical structures, but nothing that even compares to this," the Warden said.

"So the smell of your armour and how weak it is..."

"It isn't simple iron, I won't say much anymore," the Warden said.

"The armour and chainmail is light, the leather allows for freedom of movement," the old warrior said.

"And the smell is for blocking out your scent from creature's with more advanced senses of smell," stated the old man.

"Darkspawn and other creatures in the deep roads!"

Revan nodded his head and then began to explain his story to the Warden. He knew that the man was telling a condensed version, as well as probably omitting aspects of his personal story. Revan though did introduce the crew and some of the different species of his crew. His apparent lover, though Revan never admitted it, was Bastilla Shan a member of the Jedi order alongside himself and Juhani, whose species was the Cat like Cathar. He went onto explain that the Jedi order were protectors of the republic, knights whom fought to preserve peace and justice, people whom had learned to harness the force.

"The Force is an energy field created by all living things, it surrounds us and penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together," Revan stated.

The Warden hummed sceptically, the force reminding him a little too much in the belief of the Maker, or any god in general. Revan then went into the republic, an organisation that their pilot Carth Onasi was a military officer of. The republic was an alliance of worlds, all so advanced that though some still had monarchs, were generally ruled through democracy. Hundreds of worlds made up the republic, though the republic still had a few worlds and cultures that opposed it, or at least weren't member states. That led Revan to the furry creature, a Wookie, Zaalbar's people at least weren't yet part of the republic. The blue skinned girl then chimed in, introducing herself as Mission Vao. Revan explained she was a Twi'lek, but then stated that diplomatically, Twi'leks weren't always answerable to the dictates of the Ryloth government. Every citizen was answerable to galactic laws, but they generally had the freedom to pursue happiness without the interference of their origin species government. Which led to Revan introducing the old warrior, Canderous of clan Ordo of the Mandalorians, a culture of warriors from different species.

"Wait, if you, Bastilla and Juhani are Jedi warriors, what about him?" the Warden asked, referring to the old man.

"Jolee Bindo, I'm just an ordinary old man, with force powers...and a light sabre!"

"And these golems?"

"Statement: We are not golems, primitive stone monsters, Query: do we look like we're made of stone meat bag?"

Droids, that's what Revan called them. HK-47 was the name of the tall droid who spoke, he was a protocol and battle droid and the smaller one, only able to speak through beeps was T3-M4.

"I see, and what was happening to you before our universes were...merged?" the warden asked.

"Flying through space, searching for rights to wrong as Jedi do, though mostly we were healing," Revan looked at Bastila as he spoke.

A look of apprehension crossed her face, and guilt too. Clearly this group had been through much, and the Warden wasn't going to press, at least for now. He stood and made his way to one of Revan's supply bags. Carth made a move to say something, but stopped when Revan raised his hand. Even as the Warden removed quarter staffs and swords from the bag, the group said nothing. Testing a Vibrosword with a few swings, the Warden put it on his belt.

"This is good, I'll need to borrow it for a while," he said.

"Keep it, consider it a gift until we join up with the republic fleet," Revan said.

"Speaking of, I'm going back to the bridge Revan, Bastila," Carth looked to the Jedi and she nodded.

"I'll take to navigation."

"In the mean time, could I also borrow a book, anything you have that might tell me more of the republic's history and general politics there?" the Warden asked.

"I do actually, my data pad has some articles on it," Revan removed the pad from the table and gave it to the warden. "Now it responds to touch, if you..."

"I understand pictures, this high lights the map, your inventory and here's information, whilst I'll agree we're superstitious, primitive and savage, most from my universe aren't unintelligent," the Warden explained.

"I meant no disrespect," Revan said.

"I know, don't worry I'm used to things I say being taken out of context too!"

"You mean people never listening to you explain yourself? And never letting you explain afterwards?" Revan asked.

The Warden raised his head and looked at Revan, "yes!" he said.

Revan's eyes nearly watered.

"Do your companions suddenly have arguments at the most inappropriate time?" he asked.

The Warden nodded his head and Revan sighed in relief.

'Finally, someone who understands,' he thought.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the republic fleet, a more official meeting was taking place. After docking the Normandy with the Vigilance, Shepard had his crew lock a few areas and prepare for assistance from the republic crew. When the republic soldiers came in, they immediately began assisting wounded officers. They worked alongside Chakwas, who used the rank of ship's doctor to override any authority the republic medics might have. They were willing to accept her guidance, especially as she spoke with them about Liara.

"Severe concussion gained from trauma she sustained from a fall, there have been some abnormal readings from her brainwaves too, her physiology is identical to humans with a few exceptions I want to brief your doctors on," the doctor explained as she walked with the medics and their stretcher.

"They seem disciplined enough, I'm not sure about the orange armour though," Ashley huffed.

"Says the woman who was wearing white and pink armour when we first met," Garrus quipped.

"I just hope their engineers are as competent," Tali muttered.

"I'll leave that in your hands Tali, Ashley, Traynor with me!"

"Excuse me, which one of you is the chief engineer?" a republic soldier asked.

"That would be me," Tali said, raising her hand.

"Are you the engineer?" the man asked again.

"She just told you," Garrus said.

"Wait a moment, oh that's it," Traynor clicked her fingers. "Garrus, Tali, I don't think any of the republic crew are going to be able to understand you!"

"What do you mean Traynor?" Shepard asked.

"Our translators understand languages from our universe, from what we've seen of the republic they use a language identical to our English, tell me do any of you have universal translators?" Traynor asked the republic soldier.

"Some species use special collars to help speak basic, but unless we understand an alien language we have to use protocol droids," he said.

"Well here's a new challenge, Traynor, Tali, see what you can do about installing some new languages in our own translators, and give the republic what you can about the details of Asari, Turian, Quarian and other languages from Citadel space," Shepard commanded.

"Yes Commander!"

"Ah so you're the Commander of the ship, if you require medical attention I can have the admiral meet...

"That won't be necessary, I'll speak with her in her office or the bridge," Shepard said.

"But sir," the soldier nervously shuffled his feet.

"My facial injuries are nothing to worry about son!"

The soldier nodded his head, then proceeded to lead Shepard out of the ship with Ashley behind him. Walking off of the Normandy's loading ramp, they saw, alongside Vega and Cortez the size and grandeur of the republic hanger. Everything was so much brighter when compared to the alliance, the hull on the walls was silver, though did have some exposed tubing and wires. At the same time, things seemed more streamlined, the fighters too put the Kodiak to shame. Then there was the republic, most looked human but Shepard saw different species too, men with fish like faces, humans with spikes on their head, as well as women with some kind of head tails.

"Behave," he muttered to Vega, who took particular interest of the latter aliens.

"And I thought Asari were easy on the eyes," James said.

"This is incredible, I always thought our universe was diverse with alien life," Ashley said as she and Shepard followed the soldier through the corridors of the ship.

"This is natural for us, so different universes, Master Vandar had such a theory when witnessing the event," the soldier explained.

"Master," Shepard raised his eyebrows.

"He's a Jedi."

"What's a Jedi?" Ashley asked.

"Wow, maybe you are from a different universe," the soldier said.

He led them to a half circular door, and when it opened, they were assaulted by the sounds and sights commonly seen on the bridge of a ship. A middle aged woman in an officer's uniform stood in the middle of the room. Next to her was a small looking alien, his wrinkled screen was grey and he had pointed ears. When the admiral handed the comm. to another officer, she walked closer to her guests. Shepard then saw the alien much closely. He really was small, barely reaching the knees of the woman beside him. His eyes were wide, his short arms had three clawed finger tips, similar to his bare feet. A small cylinder device hung off of his belt, and he had covered the rest of his body with blue robes. Despite his lack of any military uniform, Shepard could see that the soldiers had a great regard for the alien.

"You must be the commanding officer of the ship we picked up, Admiral Dodonna of the republic fleet," the woman offered Shepard her hand.

"Commander Shepard of the system alliance, council Spectre and captain of the Normandy," Shepard returned the gesture. "This is Commander Ashley Williams also with the alliance!"

Ashley delivered a standard naval salute, as Shepard expected she would. She had her attitude at times, but being from a military family she understood clear chains of command and the protocol for them.

"Allow me to introduce Master Vandar of the Jedi order," she gestured to the small alien beside her.

"Commander Shepard, Commander Williams, truly the force was with you for you to cross our path. Many questions there are, answers we all may find together," Vandar said.

Ashley blinked in confusion for a moment, over Vandar's brief breaking of English. But dismissing it she followed Shepard's lead and walked with the Admiral and Jedi master.

"Thank you for the help, what can you tell us about the enemy?" Shepard asked.

"Sith they are not," Vandar shook his head as he spoke.

"They certainly aren't Cerberus either, tech they used seemed to be a mixture of yours and ours," Shepard said.

"We'll need to have our engineers exchange information, but there were supposedly dark Jedi amongst the forces that attacked Coruscant, alongside something else, are you sure what those other soldiers used had nothing to do with the force master Vandar?" Dodonna asked.

"No, draw from something else they did, not the force but something more primal, destructive."

"We lost contact with our council and the alliance fleet, most of our equipment was damaged in the fight, other than information there isn't a lot we may be able to give you. I'd hate to incur a bigger debt, but we may need to borrow your communication equipment," Shepard explained.

"My thoughts exactly, we need to set up a meeting as soon as possible," Dodonna opened the door to a kind of war room.

Inside it were a group of men in similar robes to Vandar's. Two of the men were human, both balding, but one was white and wore red robes, the other was dark skinned and wore brown robes. There was a pink skinned alien with head tails as opposed to hair, he also wore blue robes. All of the men had large versions of the cylinder shaped device on their belts.

"Commander Shepard, Williams, allow me to introduce you to the Jedi council of the former temple on Dantooine, Masters Dorak, Zhar and Vrook," Dodonna pointed to each one as she spoke.

"Introductions will have to wait, and you will have to delay returning to Coruscant admiral," Master Vrook said.

"Why?" the admiral inquired.

The Jedi master removed an orb shaped device from his robes, placing it on a scanning tool o the map. It was very different in terms of style to what Shepard had seen, but he assumed the device was the equivalent of a storage disc. Two holograms appeared side by side.

"They broadcasted it a few hours ago," Zhar said.

Shepard could tell that the man was recognised by the admiral and the Jedi. He had no idea who the woman 'could' be, she was wearing a white robe, appearing more like a biblical martyr awaiting execution. She was beautiful, but Shepard knew what would happen to her and when he read her lips he felt a tinge of sympathy for the poor soul losing the one they loved.

"The Chancellor, by the force," Dodonna muttered.

"They are still occupying Coruscant, they referred to this as their declaration of intent," Dorak said.

"The republic, the Chantry, whatever that is, so at some point we'll be seeing them execute a significant leader from our universe," Shepard said.

"That was our belief as well, what can you tell us of your leaders and the possible candidates?" Vrook asked.

"That is information I am afraid is classified," Shepard said and the Jedi and admiral widened their eyes in shock.

"What but..."

"Hold Master Vrook, offence, Commander Shepard's intention is not," Vandar said.

"Has it occurred to you that this 'cult' gained its power through infiltration of certain organisations in their universe. They have access to your level of ships and tech, they have Reaper technology, and this other power they used, they also knew exactly how to hit our defences and who to target. This was something they were planning for years, and when you do something like that, it makes sense to have people in high places," Shepard explained.

"Spies," Dodonna clarified.

"People who are good at concealing their intentions, their hatred for our organisations, whilst I'm not familiar with your universe's history, I could understand why they'd be after my universe's leaders."

"All leaders make mistakes," Vrook said.

"Our leaders ignored for years Shepard's warnings that the Reapers were coming for us," Ashley said.

"This is not the first time I have heard that term, what are the Reapers?" Zhar asked.

"The Reapers are a fleet of technorganic star ships, more powerful than anything in our universe. They enact a cycle every fifty thousand years, they purge the galaxy of all technologically advanced species, erase the evidence of their existence and then repeat," Shepard explained.

"How many cycles have they carried out?" Vrook asked, his eyebrow raised in the sceptical way Shepard recognised.

"We don't know, the one before us was against the Protheans, and they've carried out more, even doing the same thing to their creators the Leviathans," Shepard said.

"Were no limits put on the intellect of your droids?" Dodonna asked.

"I don't know what the laws behind your universe's use of AI is, but in our universe we enacted strict laws, though some exceptions were made, generally we restrict the intelligence and personalities of our artificial life forms to virtual intelligence units," Shepard explained.

"Our droids have limits to them as well, though the kind of AI research you speak of just wasn't done in our universe," Dorak said.

"Lucky for you guys, now Admiral, gentlemen, if there's any other questions you have I can answer them later, right now I'd like to see my crew members in the medical bay," Shepard said.

"Of course, I'll have one of my men show you the way Commander, I need to get back to the bridge as well," Dodonna said.

Shepard and Ashley left the meeting room, waiting outside of it whilst Dodonna made her way to the bridge.

"Just when we thought our lives couldn't get any weirder," Ashley muttered.

"Honestly I can't even figure out whether I should be surprised, it sounds like something from a science fiction vid, but I'm sure there were a few back home who said the same thing about the Reapers," Shepard explained.

"Is there a 'back home' anymore, or is this it?"

"We should try not to distract ourselves with that kind of thinking, right now we need to focus on finding a way to navigate our new surroundings, we're not planting roots, we're figuring out what we can do," Shepard assured his friend.

"I'm with you whatever you decide Commander, but if we do hear anything about our families."

"Then if it's possible we'll go and see them, I promise Ashley," Shepard said.

Ashley nodded her head, her trust in Shepard was as firm as the rest of the crew. And Shepard remembered, that though the closest thing he had to family was his crew, most had their own families. Ashley most of all had her mother and sisters, whom she had always been close to. Garrus by contrast had strained relations with his sister and father, though he still cared for them. Liara, Shepard remembered recently met her father. His thoughts were on the Shadow Broker when the republic crewman arrived to lead them to her.

* * *

The Warden had spent the better part of an hour reading the data pad, familiarising himself with the republic's history, the technology of the galaxy. He didn't understand all of the science, and though he looked at the stars often, he wouldn't consider himself an astronomer. But some of the concepts were easy for him to grasp, because he had never been particularly rooted in traditions and religious beliefs. Even honour and compassion were not beliefs constrained by time to him, there was right and wrong, there was justifications and no matter what the time, the law would at times always be unfair to others. He lowered the data pad and looked up, seeing Revan and Bastila standing there.

"Thank you," the warden said.

"Caught up? Are you sure you don't need to read anymore?" Revan asked.

"I've always been able to remember things extremely well, from what I've just read it's what you might call a 'photographic' memory."

"So you have been learning," Revan smirked.

"Revan, you and Bastila had better make your way to the bridge now, we've just exited Warp space and have found a habited world," Carth said over the Intercom.

The Warden followed Revan and Bastila through the corridors of the ship, to the circular room that seemed to be the largest room in the ship, and some kind of recreational area. He saw Mission and Zaalbar playing some kind of chest game, but the projectors on the board created holograms of real chest pieces. Though these pieces were monsters, not knights, pawns and monarchs. There was a different air to the Jedi, perhaps it was something to do with the power they wielded. They were on edge, the Warden was familiar with the signs from his time defending Redcliffe and Amaranthine. He walked to the corridor connecting the rec. room to the bridge and listened to the conversation between Carth and the two Jedi.

"Everything there seems distorted, despite its position from the sun the temperatures are varying in different areas, there's one sun in this system but the temperature on one part of the planet is as hot as Tatooine. But there are areas of forests and vegetation, and a city, though the tech is different from ours," Carth explained.

"One city?" Bastila asked.

"One city with the technology that our scanners could detect, but I sense more life forms there," Revan said.

"Wait, I sense them too, primitive, savage...much like our new guest."

"Beloved I think you will find that our new guest is not what you'd expect, for one thing he has a penchant for eavesdropping," Revan smiled when he looked over his shoulder.

Despite discovery, the Warden simply crossed his arms and leant against the wall.

"All right, find us a place to land and bring us down," Revan said.

"There's a clearing not too far from the city, I'll start the landing process," Carth said.

Revan and Bastila walked back through. Passing the Warden, the woman avoiding looking at him. He felt the Ebon Hawk land, and the shift in what they called gravity. The weight returned to his limbs, and it made him feel much better. He was the first to the exit ramp, Revan kept Bastila and Jolee behind him.

"Usually only three of us go out, but I'm not opposed to a fourth," Revan said.

"Why three? Do you only keep one defender and one healer available?" the Warden asked.

"Actually, roles are redundant with Jedi, we can be healers, attackers and defenders in one," Jolee said.

"You take four people out?" Revan asked.

"It makes sense, one spell caster, one rogue for fast attacks and unlocking chests, and a warrior for simultaneous attack and defence, and depending on what kind of attacking strategy I want I'll add as the fourth either a mage, a warrior or a rogue," the Warden explained.

"I see, that makes a lot of sense, but largely its redundant for us, right now I'm going to assume that this planet is ruled mostly by humans so it'll be Jolee and Bastila with me," Revan said.

"Which is a foolish thing to assume kid, for all you know it could be tentacle monsters with three eyes inhabiting this world," Jolee said gruffly.

When they got out of the ship, they found themselves walking on grass. There were rain clouds in the sky, but then another few miles and they would walk onto dry rocky terrain where the sun shined.

"Something feels wrong," Bastila said.

"Is the freaky terrain a dead giveaway?" Jolee asked.

"No, I can feel it too, some places we've just walked in feel lifeless, as if the force isn't there," Revan said.

"Yeah I sense it too, but my eyes and ears sense animals in the bushes and the trees, try not to rely too much on the force, remember you got off of Taris without a lightsabre and force powers," Jolee explained.

Clearing away some bushes, the Warden walked onto a patch of blood stained grass. As the Jedi trio spread out and kept alert, he knelt by the bodies of broadly built men in red armour and robes. Tattoos were on their skin and many of them had horns.

"What are they?" Bastila asked.

"Qunari, they're from my Universe, this must be part of their territory," the Warden said.

"Yes, this planet I think is a mesh of different worlds from the different universes, the desert terrain matches Tattooine, and the rocky plains I recognised as Korriban, neither places would have a tropical environment such as this," Revan explained.

"This was an ambush, a massacre, and I think I found who they were fighting, they took a few out at least," Jolee said, indicating a body that didn't match the Qunari.

It was a man in silver armour, more advanced than what the Warden had seen even dwarves make. There was a gold visor covering the dead man's face, some kind of glass, their weapon, something very similar to what Canderous had been holding, as resting at the man's side.

"The Sith are here, looks like a few didn't accept Malak's passing," Revan said.

The three Jedi suddenly became more alert, looking to the West. The Warden however rushed through the bushes ahead of them. They sensed turbulent emotions through the force, crowds of distress and panic. He however could hear it, a song, a song of violence and destruction, corruption, a calling. The Warden drew his Vibrosword and activated his combat magic's fade shroud and his creation tree's haste ability. Like a ghost he appeared to exist out of phase with the world, and he moved faster. Jumping through bushes, he landed on top of a metallic hut of some kind. His perspective slowed and he took in his surroundings, metallic huts, obviously one of the advanced societies of the other trapped universes. People were screaming, and fighting, and as the Warden sensed their enemies were Darkspawn. They were the breed found in the Marches, the pale skinned Hurlocks and bulky Genlocks (very different from the kind he first encountered in his younger days). The Hurlocks had some different kinds of people, blue skinned women with tentacles instead of hair. They weren't like Mission though, there were other amphibious looking women in the grip of the Darkspawn, their eyes black and limbs very thin. Whatever they were, the Darkspawn wanted them for breeding, the others were just meat. His plan already formed, the Warden rushed to combat.

In a burst of speed however, the three Jedi were already in the fighting. Their energy blades ignited. Jolee cut the limbs of the Hurlock's holding the blue skinned women, the green blade burning through the darkspawn flesh quicker than fire empowered blades. Twirling her yellow double bladed sabre, Bastila threw her hand forward, throwing a group of the darkspawn back. Revan swung a purple blade with his right, and a red blade with his left, moving ahead of his companions and cutting a path through the darkspawn.

"RUN!" he yelled at the women.

Then he threw his sabres, beheading the darkspawn attacking some of the other civilians. They flew back to his hands and he stood ready with his companions. All three of them were devastating, the Warden had heard people sing praise of his own skill and abilities, but he knew he paled in comparison to these three, to the Jedi. But overcoming his awe, he knew there were still things he could do.

"Don't let their blood get in your eyes or mouth, their blood is extremely poisonous and infectious," he said.

"Good to know kid," Jolee said.

The Warden ran to the aid of the civilians, cutting down the darkspawn attacking them.

"Get back," he commanded.

He heard some of the avian creatures say something to him, their tones indicating a thanks of some kind. Even if he could understand their language for sure, it didn't matter. He knew what his priority had to be. He drew on his mana to bolster his arcane warrior spells, for the elements however he would draw on the power of blood. Cutting the palm of his hand, he hissed, his eyes glowing red as he accessed the power forbidden by the chantry. Slamming his palm into the ground, he used his blood as fuel for the ice magic. With a marksman's precision he summoned from the ground spears of ice that impaled the darkspawn attacking soldier and civilian alike.

"Get behind me if you want to stay alive," he told them.

The song screamed in his mind and he turned, preparing to block a Hurlock's axe. Suddenly, the Hurlock's face exploded. Some kind of projectile had impacted with its face. Though it had travelled faster than any arrow, the Warden was able to guess where it had come from. One top of one of the huts, he saw the light reflect off of something, a spyglass attached to a weapon. The shooter was a creature the Warden had not seen before or read about. He had pink skin hairless skin and wore a green coat of some kind. He tapped the visor on his eye and seemed to communicate something.

"Roger Jaal, good shot," the Warden heard a woman speak ahead of him.

He looked towards a woman with short blonde hair. The suit she wore was odd, silver, blue and black fabric with armour, though it seemed much too tight to be considered it. She withdrew from her hip a 'blaster', though when she fired it bolts of plasma didn't fly out, instead projectiles much like what had blown off the previous Hurlock's head came flying out of the barrel. A blue energy glowed around her and she jumped, punching the ground and casting aside the Darkspawn around her.

"Now Drack," she commanded.

There was a great roar and a bulky, reptilian creature in yellow armour rushed into the Darkspawn. As the creature slammed its electrified hammer into the Darkspawn, and 'Jaal' shot from the rooftops, the Warden analysed their fighting styles and came to an epiphany.

'A long distance rogue, a heavily built warrior, and an offensive spell caster,' his eyes looked to the woman as she pushed away more darkspawn with her powers. 'I can use them as a party,' he thought.

He deactivated his combat magic and haste, sheathed his sword and focused on his stored power. With a crack of lightning he appeared between the woman and 'Drack'.

"More are coming," the warden said.

In his hands he materialised the staff 'Final Reason'. Then his armour shifted, the skirt armour changed into the robes, his chest plate turned into an armoured coat, the fur on his collar grew thicker and his gloves turned into the fingerless kind. Tapping his staff against the ground, he settled into his mage style and then held his weapon at the ready.

"More are approaching, if you want to live through this, follow my lead," he said.

There was a moment of hesitation from the new trio. Revan sensed their defences relax, sensed them accept the lead of the mysterious, but strong man before them. These three were accustomed to obeying commands. But more importantly, they knew a leader when they saw one.

"Four huh," he smirked, motioning to Bastila and Jolee.

The three Jedi jumped to the Warden's side, holding their sabres at the ready.

"Who says you have to stop at four huh?"

The new party prepared themselves, as the second wave of Darkspawn charged.

Next Chapter 4: Missions

* * *

Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter, I wanted to include some extra obstacles for the characters, primarily being the language barrier between the different aliens, which will really come into play next chapter. With the Warden's perspective I wanted to convey, even though he's read up on some tech, he's not completely aware of all the terms, and he hasn't read anything about Mass Effect tech too, so it still seems otherworldly to him.

The Warden's 'style change' is what I like to think of as a reference to Origin's gameplay. In origins, though there were some restrictions, generally you could wear whatever armour or use whatever weapons you wanted, which change to specific types with he release of future games. You could make an Arcane Warrior mage that equipped heavy armour and a sword and shield, and buffed themselves with magic, but you lost that with 2. I have yet to play as a 'Knight-Enchanter' in Inquisition, so I'm basing the Warden's arcane warrior abilities on the Origins gameplay.

Next time, the different groups set themselves some tasks and more character meetings.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, Dragon Age or Mass Effect

Last bit of this chapter is my favourite, as it brings in one of my favourite Origin's companions.

* * *

Gathering Darkness: Bio-Merge

Chapter 4: Missions

The Darkspawn were savage creatures, but not mindless. Awakened darkspawn had the intelligence to communicate with humans, but even an individual unawakened darkspawn had problem solving intellect. Together, they used insanity to hide darken intents, only using survival instincts. Their strategy was to strike at the weak, but if there was a clear and present threat, they put everything into destroying the threat. But Revan and his Jedi companions were above their league, their power confused the darkspawn, and that made them vulnerable.

It had been some time since the Warden had used his mage style. Alone in the deep roads he had used mostly his own honed and learnt tactics, tricks mostly to keep himself alive. With staff in hand he used complex misdirection hexes to affect the aim of the Darkspawn archers. Then he protected the technological warriors with barriers. They were astonished, but not ungrateful, Drack charged the darkspawn head on and used his own barrier protected head as a weapon. The Warden suspected even without the weapon, the dragon like man had the strength to kill with a head butt alone. He tapped his staff against the ground multiple times, shaking the ground enough to give the shooter in blue openings to strike at vulnerable darkspawn. With Winters grasp he froze the darkspawn and the blonde haired woman threw a blast of blue energy, creating an explosion of ice and guts.

"Don't let their blood touch you, its toxic," he warned them again.

"Good to know," the blonde haired woman said, lifting up several of the darkspawn.

The Warden unleashed a surge of electricity from his finger tips, the lightning mingled with the blue energy and then detonated. Whatever it was, it reacted to electrical impulses. The Jedi moved like blurs, their energy swords cleaving through the Darkspawn. They left no blood in their wake as the swords were so hot they cauterised the wounds they left behind. Revan stabbed his sabre through a Hurlocks mouth, then threw the other through a Genlock's shield. Jolee was lifting Darkspawn up in waves, leaving them vulnerable for Jaal to pick off with his rifle. The ground seemed to shake, the familiar signs of an ogre approaching. Bastila saw the beast approach, and threw her sabre, cutting the ogre's legs. Drack ran ahead of her and jumped at the ogre, hitting its head with his hammer with such force that the ogre's horned head shattered. Its death signalled the end of the darkspawn attack, the fighters stood victorious and unscathed. As if sensing no more danger would come before the Warden did, the Jedi deactivated their weapons and put them back on their belts.

"Drack check the perimeter, Jaal, contact the Tempest, let them know we've found a settlement," the blonde haired woman said.

The Warden returned to his base equipment, walking to the Jedi and the woman.

"Thanks for the assist, what were those things?" she asked.

"Darkspawn Hurlocks and Genlocks, they don't settle in the open air, there's probably a deep roads entrance or a cave nearby," the Warden stated.

"A little early for Halloween aren't we?" the woman asked him.

"Excuse me?"

"I have no idea what this 'Halloween' is, but you seem as surprised by the Wardens equipment as we were, and I can tell that your armour and weapons, though not as advanced as ours is certainly centuries above what the Warden's world may have produced," Revan explained.

"'Not as advanced as ours,' last I checked we weren't wearing robes," Drack chuckled.

"Let us in on the joke why don't you," Jolee muttered.

"We have robes, but we certainly don't go into battle with them," the blonde haired woman said.

"This is a sort of requirement amongst our order, we have armour, but it can become difficult to draw from the force," Bastila said.

"Why would wearing armour make it difficult for you to use your abilities?" the Warden asked.

Revan raised his hand to speak, but paused, he stroked his chin and narrowed his eyes.

"You know what," he said. "I don't really know why, there are just some techniques we can't use."

"That makes zero sense, then again biotics take longer to cool down because of equipment weight...for some reason," Drack said.

"Are we seriously having this conversation Drack?"

"What did he say?" the Warden asked.

The blonde haired woman looked at him in shock for a moment, then saw the equally confused looks on the faces of the Jedi.

"When Drack spoke those past few times, could any of you understand him?" she asked.

"I am fluent with most languages in our galaxy, your friend Drack however speaks with a dialect I don't recognise, I assume the same would apply to your friend with the rifle," Revan explained.

"Do none of you have any kind of translator?"

"We have a protocol droid," Bastila said.

"We can discuss details about the situation later, for now, we should get introductions out of the way and see what we can do to assist the people here, I am Revan, these are my fellow Jedi..."

"Ahem," Jolee coughed.

"Sorry Jolee, Bastila is one of my fellow Jedi."

"Cora Harper, Lieutenant with the Andromeda Initiative Human Pathfinder team, the Krogan here is Drack and the marksman you saw earlier is Jaal."

Revan and Cora turned to the Warden, expecting his introduction.

"Warden will do!"

* * *

Republic Fleet

Since ending his meeting the admiral and the Jedi masters, Shepard had been escorted to the medical bay. He found Chakwas tended to both Alliance and republic personnel, as he would have expected of her. She was a doctor through and through, her Omni-tool flashing as she checked over conditions and applied medi-gel. Her fellow doctor was an orange skinned Twi'lek man. He fortunately spoke basic, the republic's version of human English and from what Shepard could see was getting along well with the doctor. So well that Chakwas continued her care of the other patients and left the Twi'lek to approach Shepard.

"Commander, Chakwas updated me on your circumstances, I'll want to look at those cybernetics of yours, Doctor Talos at your service," Shepard tilted his head slightly upon hearing the man speak.

If he didn't know any better, Shepard would have assumed from the man's accent that he had French ancestry.

"There something wrong Shepard?" Talos asked.

"No, no, you can check my cybernetics but first, you have an Asari patient here..."

"Liara T'Soni, yes, I have B7 monitoring her," Talos said, leading Shepard towards one of the beds.

On it was Liara, her jacket cast aside, the side of her head purple from the bruising on it. There was a device on the side of her head too, blinking lights on it betrayed nothing of its function. Talos removed a cylinder shaped machine from his belt, running it over the device for a moment. He looked at the readings on it and nodded his head with a smile.

"She's unconscious from a concussion, there's a Jedi healer on board I'd like to have a look at her too, I'll be blunt and quick Commander, your friend's species already have spatial awareness above that of other species and a type of psychic ability," Talos explained.

"They can join their minds with others, but it isn't as if they can read minds at the click of a finger, Liara was different, I'd never seen her react like that before," Shepard muttered.

"Chakwas said as much, we have a theory that upon crossing into this dimension, she had become what we call 'force sensitive' ask the Jedi for more details but suffice to say I believe Dr T'Soni unwittingly tapped into the force and she couldn't handle it," Talos explained.

"The Force, that's like a religion isn't it?" Shepard asked.

"More like a source of energy, something all living things from our universe have shared, but according to some of the Jedi crew members your crew members have been like 'blank spots' with a few exceptions," Talos continued, gesturing for Shepard to have a seat.

Shepard did just that, and Talos began to scan him with his devices. They were compact in a way, though Shepard at least trusted that an Omni-tool wasn't something that would fall off of a belt. Talos shook his head when he examined Shepard's face.

"I haven't had much time to fully read up on this Lazarus project in detail, I'm impressed they brought you back from the dead but it seems like they more had the intention of improving you than rebuilding you," Talos said.

"Their plan was to bring me back as I was," Shepard said.

"Absolutely ridiculous, this level of cybernetic implantation and cloned tissue can't possibly be called 'as you were' your bones are tougher, your skin more alloy than flesh and don't even get me started on your eyes...here, reading material," the Twi'lek gave him a data pad. "You need to be aware of certain things in the republic Shepard, one I'm going to tell you, which you'll know if you've got common sense. The republic's not perfect," Talos said bluntly.

"Good to know our galaxy's politics have that much in common," Shepard smiled, focusing on the text on the data pad.

"I don't know how far spread this 'merging event' was but there's a good chance you'll encounter enemies of the republic, the Sith," Talos spoke the name with venom.

"I'm hoping our own enemies didn't follow us through, " Shepard muttered.

"Chakwas gave me the brief on the Reapers, they sound terrifying," Talos said.

"Not just the Reapers, Cerberus too, can only imagine what they would do if they ended up here," Shepard said.

"Best to face one stressful situation at a time, especially considering your skin's regeneration rate is determined by your mood, so no falling to the dark side Shepard," Talos explained.

Shepard raised his eyebrows in confusion and Talos simply chuckled.

"There's nothing we can do that your body won't do for itself, stay with her as long as you want," the doctor added over his shoulder before moving onto another patient.

Shepard shuffled closer to Liara, briefly touching her hand.

'Wake up soon Shadow Broker, I'll need your eyes and ears out there, you're the only one who can help us find whose lost Liara,' Shepard thought and prayed.

He made his way back to the Normandy, seeing Cortez speaking with some of the pilots as he expected. One of the republic fighters had been put by the side of the Kodiac drop shuttle. Both pilots went through the workings of their craft and the great points of both. Back in their own 'timeline' Shepard would have added his two cents to an argument, though there wasn't one here. Shepard could see that Cortez agreed with the republic pilots, they had them beat when it came to small fighter craft. Ashley and Vega stood with a republic officer, both of them showing him what weapons they had and how they worked. The republic officers revealed an assortment of blaster rifles and pistols, and unless Shepard's eyes had been damaged a sword of all things.

'Then again there are guys in N7 who use swords, the Asari too, and Cerberus,' Shepard groaned, remembering the reports he'd heard of soldiers falling to Cerberus phantoms.

"No, no, no, Bosh'Tet no!"

Steam came out of the underbelly of the Normandy as Shepard walked over. Tali was standing between Ken and a republic engineer. Only the republic engineer was an alien, a lanky grey skinned species with a curved head that seemed to have no mouth. Though a series of sounds that vaguely resembled words came out of the alien's mouth.

"That goes there, this goes there," she snarled, pointing at different areas of the ship.

"Good to see you're having fun with this," Shepard said, loud enough to catch the Quarian's attention.

"Take over Ken, I'm sure he can at least understand you," Tali shook her head and walked over to Shepard. "Between learning as much as I can from republic tech and keeping the Normandy from falling apart, this is proving to be harder than the time I had to fix the Neema's plumbing systems."

"I wouldn't trust anyone else with this Tali," Shepard said.

"Careful Shepard, Adams might get offended, I'm trying not to be," Garrus called out to them, walking down the Normandy's loading ramp and meeting the pair.

"You look bored Garrus, are they not letting you calibrate their guns?" Tali asked.

"That's not the only thing I do you know."

"Oh so you haven't asked?"

Garrus scratched his head and sighed.

"No, they wouldn't let me, one of those aliens with the tails on their heads said 'KEEPOONA!' I assume he was offended so I backed off," Garrus explained.

Shepard chuckled and shook his head, turning to look at the Alliance and republic crews working together. Garrus and Tali both stood at his side, the Turian with his hands on his hips.

"Saren, the Collectors, this war with the Reapers, I didn't think there would be any other dangerous and weird missions to follow you into Shepard," Garrus said.

That made Shepard nod and smile. Out of all his crew, Garrus and Tali had always been there for him. Tali put aside her pilgrimage to help him stop Saren, even though she'd already endured attempts on her life bringing evidence of Saren's activities to him. She left the migrant fleet to help him in his fight against the Collectors, what everyone at the time called a suicide mission. Even after reclaiming her home world, she continued to serve with the Normandy. Garrus likewise left behind a promising (though frustrating) career in C-Sec to help against Saren. When the fight against the Collectors started, it seemed almost like fate that Garrus and Shepard would reunite on Omega. They were always with him, his best friends and the people he trusted the most.

"I'm glad I've got you guys with me," the commander said.

"But there's another person you want with you too right?" Garrus asked, causing Tali to elbow his ribs.

"No its okay Tali, knowing our luck it won't be too long before we see one another," Shepard said.

"Hold onto that optimism Shepard," a voice spoke behind them.

They turned to see Dorak standing there, his arms behind his head.

"The force works in mysterious ways, if there are others you care for, reuniting with them would be the will of the force, as it would be the republic and alliance meeting, may I borrow you for a moment?" the Jedi chronicler asked.

"Sure, Garrus, Tali, the two of you carry on," Shepard said, following Dorak back through the hanger.

"I don't judge others what they believe, Ashley's religious herself!"

"Oh commander," Dorak shook his head. "You are not alone in your dismissal of the force, or your misunderstanding of it, even Jedi have been known to think of it a different way."

"So there's no set way to see it?" Shepard asked.

"That would be a fair point, many trust in the force, and many take comfort that there is a plan. But the force is not all light, it is darkness as well," Dorak explained.

"Bad things happen just as much as the good," Shepard said.

"Exactly, when our worlds were merged, new physical laws of the universe began to change. People whom previously knew nothing of the force, suddenly became sensitive to it. Just as I fear that whatever source of power this 'magic' comes from has also entered the new reality."

"Magic is just a word primitives (great, I sound like Javik now) use to identify that which they can't understand," Shepard said.

"True, but the power some of the cult soldiers have used is very real, we've managed to keep it under wraps but some of their elite fighters have used this and the force together. I believe that people from our own universes have begun to manifest these abilities to manipulate elements," Dorak explained.

"That complicates things, well at least they won't suddenly gain biotics, only people exposed pre birth develop biotic abilities," Shepard stated, then raised his Omni-tool.

Samantha's voice came through the comm. frantic and excited at the same time.

"Shepard, its working again, we got it working," she said.

"What's working again Traynor?" Shepard asked, quickly beginning to make his way back to the Normandy with Dorak.

"The communicator, and we've got a ping, you need to get here and quick," Traynor said.

Shepard broke off into a run, rushing through the doors and seeing on the QEC a flickering image. Within the background of the image, he could hear the sound of blaster fire, but also explosions and rifle fire he recognised from mass effect weaponry.

"Hold on, they gave us access to their antenna array, we may be able to boost the signal, there," Traynor pointed to the image.

"Hello," a familiar face was shown on the holographic projector.

"Anderson," Shepard smiled, seeing his former CO and friend.

He was in the gear he was wearing as leader of Earth's resistance. A rifle was in his hand, and he had the slither of a smirk on his face.

"I need to keep this brief, part of London and the Citadel was broken off by the event and slammed into a planet alongside a primitive city and a more advanced one. We've put together a resistance against the cultists but they are hitting us, we've attached coordinates that match both the tech used by the alliance and the republic," Anderson explained.

"So no more Admiral, we're on our way," Shepard said.

"That would be presumptuous Commander," Admiral Dodonna came up behind Shepard, the other Jedi masters with her.

"Anderson, this is Dodonna, and Admiral, Anderson is the most decorated war hero of the alliance fleet, if he says that we need to get to those coordinates with reinforcements, then that's what my crew will do once we are fully repaired," Shepard explained.

"One ship isn't going to be enough Shepard, even if you pick up some allies along the way, Admiral Dodonna, perhaps it's best if you speak with the Jedi representative with us," Anderson said.

He moved away, and another figure came onto the projector. Shepard saw the Admiral and the Jedi's faces twist and gasp in collective horror. He had no idea why, the man seemed to be a Jedi judging from the cylinder device on his belt. He wore red clothes, the darker red vest he wore was underneath a type of harness, with silver circles on the shoulder. The man had black hair and a hardened face.

"Revan is in combat right now, but I will speak with you admiral," the man said. "I am Jedi Knight Alek Squinquargesimus!"

But Shepard heard Vrook whisper a very different name behind him, there was even a hint of venom the Jedi master's voice.

"Malak!"

* * *

The Warden stood amongst the assembled allies he had gathered. Some of the crew of the Tempest had gathered too. The 'Asari' doctor Lexi, a red haired girl with an accent that sounded like she was from Starkhaven, Suvi, and another human Liam. Both the Ebon Hawk and the Tempest landed on separate landing sites, Revan had Carth and Juhani join them from the Hawk with T3.

"Fascinating mech design," Suvi said.

T3 let out a few beeps and Revan chuckled.

"He says you're welcome, hello everyone, I'm sorry we've met under such circumstances but it is good to have found some friendly faces," Revan said.

"Friendly being the operative word, just what were those things that attack the colony?" Cora asked.

"I've analysed them, and I must say their physiology is remarkably similar to a humans," Suvi said.

"Because they are," The Warden stepped towards the table, not shocked by the holographic displays of the Darkspawn corpses. "Their bodies have the same basic structure, redundant digestive systems though, and their blood is highly toxic."

"My scans confirmed as such," Lexi said and upon the confused expressions of those not from her universe, Suvi elaborated.

"Why is the bloke from the Dungeons and Dragons convention here?" Liam asked.

"Because right now he is the closest thing to an expert on those creatures you have son," Carth said.

"From what I have heard he was also the first to come to this village's aid," Juhani said.

"Wait, you speak English?"

"I speak galactic basic, most aliens of our can understand it, speaking it is a different matter," Juhani stated.

"So wait, you guys actually learn to speak your alien languages?" Liam asked.

"Of course, don't you?" Bastila asked back.

"Well no one from our universe does," Liam said.

"I know Krogan, Solarian and human languages," Lexi said.

"That's different you're Asari, you have a long life span to study it."

"I know how to speak Asari without a translator," Cora said.

"That...you know that does not surprise me in the slightest Cora," Liam muttered.

"Can we focus here, what's the situation?" Carth asked.

The Asari whom seemed to be in charge began to speak. Lexi and the others of her universe seemed to be horrified by some of what she said. She pushed a few buttons on the table, bringing up holographic images of what the Warden guessed to be the village (or colony as Cora called it). There was a trail of some kind leading off of into the sky, then a trail leading to a cave, but the image shrunk, and a network of tunnels suddenly appeared.

"People have been taken haven't they?" he asked.

"Yes, did you..."

"Women mostly?" he inquired, interrupting Cora.

"Yes," Cora narrowed her eyes.

"They're probably dead or worse right now, how long ago where they taken?"

"Five days," Suvi said.

"Worse then," the Warden shook his head.

"Why would you say that?" Liam demanded.

"Let's not let our emotions drive us right now, now I have confidence in this man's knowledge, but we still need to confirm what happened to them. What about that other image on the screen though, the one leading to orbit?" Revan asked.

"Another group attacked the colony, men in silver armour using some kind of laser based weapons," Cora said.

"Not what blasters are but the armour does sound like Sith, were some of the people taken?" Carth asked.

"Yes!"

"They'll try to study the Asari for weaknesses, or ways they can be exploited as slaves, or drawn to the dark side," Bastila said.

"Then it seems clear to me what we need to do, split into two groups, one group goes to rescue the people in the caves and another tracks down the Sith and saves the people they've taken," Revan explained.

"No, we leave the planet, there must be a way to mark it down as unfit to live on, you'd be better off leaving this planet and the Darkspawn behind you," the Warden said.

"What the hell is wrong with you? We can't leave those people behind," Cora said.

"Besides, logistically speaking, there's no way we could fit all the people out there on the Ebon Hawk," Carth said.

"We'd struggle with the Tempest," Suvi added.

"Bomb the cave from orbit, bury the darkspawn underneath the rubble!"

"Warden, at this point, that is not an option," Revan said. "Maybe everyone who was taken is dead or 'worse' as you've put it, but we have to know, we have to be sure, and we have to be sure that we've eliminated any threat the darkspawn would be. So we send a small group into the tunnels, we confirm they're alive," the former Sith lord explained.

The Warden remained silent for a moment. Cora shook her head in disgust, she began making her way to the entrance when...

"Myself and three others, humans so that we can better communicate, and men, if we take women there's a chance they might be captured and turned into Brood mothers," the Warden explained.

Revan smirked, he suspected that deep down, the man underneath the helmet wanted to go into the caves anyway. It wasn't the force, but Revan's own intuition that helped him to judge the Warden and the kind of man he was. Indeed, the meeting haven't even closed and the Warden was already heading for the exit.

"Liam, go with him," Cora commanded and her crewmate nodded his head.

"Um, Cora, the man in the helmet has begun going through some of our equipment," Kalo said over the radio.

Cora shook her head in irritation, then thought of Ryder, she searched crates for useful things too. The Warden had abandoned guns and tossed aside a Kett Carfalon and tested the weight of an Asari sword. He ran his finger along the blade, looking at the edge before sliding it through his belt. Then he crafted up a few poultices and turned to the people accompanying him. Liam was dressed his armour, his rifle resting on his shoulder.

"Kid, we're going into a cave, you might want to take something better suited for close range," Canderous said.

He had left his repeater behind and instead had a blaster pistol in his holster, and a sword on his back. Jolee stood behind him, chuckling as Liam activated one of his Omni-blades.

"The idea is to not let them get close old man," Liam said.

"Where's the fun in that?" the Mandalorian warrior huffed.

"Let's go," the Warden said.

As one group took off, another prepped for launch. Carth ran the Hawk through its activation sequence, looking through the window to see Mission and Zaalbar helping a few of the Asari civilians. T3 was repairing a few of the settlement's facilities, working alongside Suvi. Revan leant against the wall of the Ebon Hawk's entrance corridor, nodding his head to Cora as she entered.

"We need to learn as much as we can from one another, I want to find out whose taken these people and make first contact," she said.

"Technically it would be second contact, come with us, but be prepared to follow my lead," Revan said.

"I have no problem following orders," Cora said.

The Warden looked up in the sky, seeing the Ebon Hawk leaving the atmosphere. He focused on his task, lighting his lantern and tying it to his belt. Upon entering the cave, Canderous and Liam activated the lights on the end of their guns, smirking at the Warden's low tech solution. He led them forward, deep into the cave. Liam remarked on the smell Canderous and Jolee were used to such smells and the Warden seemed completely immune to it. They passed a body covered in silver armour.

"Damn, something crushed that guy's head," Liam said.

"Must have been something powerful," Canderous remarked.

"It was a hammer," the Warden said.

"Impossible," Liam scoffed.

"No kid, it was definitely a hammer, just look at the shape of the dent, whoever wielded it was strong enough to smash clean through a Sith trooper's armour. He was, oh I'd say near seven feet tall, at least as strong as a Wookie, bronze skinned, white haired," Jolee explained.

"Wait, how would you know what colour hair he has?" Liam asked.

"Because he's standing right behind you!"

"NEHRAA KADAN!" a great roar echoed through the tunnel.

Liam turned, only to feel a spark on his cheek. The Warden was already in front of him. He brought up the Asari sword, deflecting the blow from the hammer. A chunk of the wall was knocked off, rocks were launched at Jolee like ricocheting bullets. The Jedi held up his hand, stopping the rocks. They looked at the Warden's opponent. He grinded his sword against the hammer, looking up at the giant like man. Locks of white hair hung off of the tips of the cornrows on his head. He had a beard on his chin, a look of utter focus and he wore black skirt armour, red shoulder guards and had red paint marks on his chest.

"Arishokost!" the Warden suddenly said.

"Ashkost kata Ashkaari," the giant said back.

"Rethsaam, Rethsaam Bas, Rethsaam Qunari, Ash darkspawn, Kata!"

Upon the Warden's last word, the giant took a few steps back. He nodded his head, resting his hammer against the wall. The trio behind the Warden widened their eyes. The giant's focus was still there, but there was no killing intent behind it. They stood their ground when he took hold of the Warden's shoulders.

"Meravas, Shanedan," the giant said softly.

"Shanedan Sten," the Warden's voice was filled with equal warmth.

They rested their heads together in a brotherly embrace.

"Kadan," both whispered.

The other universe trio traded expressions.

"Well, I guess they know each other," Liam muttered.

"Always good to run into friends," Jolee added.

Next Chapter 5: Horrors

* * *

Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter, and the shock introductions.

The Arishok/Sten and the Grey Warden reunite, I like scenes where the Warden meets old companions, writing and reading them.

Next time the Star Wars and Mass Effect gangs see some of the true horrors the Darkspawn are capable of.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Age, Mass Effect or Star Wars

* * *

Gathering Darkness: Bio-Merge

Chapter 5: Horrors

Everything seemed louder on the Ebon Hawk to Cora. Though the hull was darker, she couldn't help but feel that the Ebon Hawk was more advanced than the Tempest. Perhaps even more advanced than the Normandy. Walking to the cockpit, she saw Carth sitting at the controls. There was no holographic interface, very different from what helmsman used in her universe. When she looked out at space, she again saw that it was very different from Andromeda, and even more different from the Milky Way galaxy. There was a yellow haze in space, as if they weren't flying through space at all.

"Who are the Sith?" she asked, taking the co-pilot seat.

"Did Revan and Bastila tell you about the Jedi?" he asked back and she nodded. "The Sith are their opposite, kind of the opposite of the republic too, they don't believe in democracy, they believe in power, in taking what's there's. Their leaders Darth Malak and...someone else, once believed they should be an empire, Malak is dead, but the ambitions of the admiralty and the dark Jedi masters lives on," he explained.

"They seem like Cerberus from our universe, an anti alien organisation," Cora said.

"They certainly have anti alien tendencies, but they're ruthless to anyone."

"Bastila said something about the prisoners being turned to the dark side, what did she mean by that?" Cora asked.

"The Jedi are about peace, compassion, protecting people. But the Dark Jedi are ruthless, ambitious. I'm no expert on the force, but I believe in it, I believe the Jedi work with it and respect it. Dark Jedi twist it, and use it for their own ends. The force can do terrible things to the mind, it can change you, erase your very identity, and sometimes replace it with something new," Carth explained.

Cora saw the hesitation on Carth's face, even the pain in his voice. She looked over her shoulder and saw Revan standing against the wall, a far off expression on his face. Bastila walked to his side and rubbed his shoulders. They walked away from the corridor and Cora left them to it, understanding their need for privacy.

"You don't need to feel guilty anymore Bastila," Revan told his lover.

"For when I fell to the dark side? Or the council's manipulation?" she asked.

He stroked the side of her face, kissing her.

"I will never hate you, or blame you, you were a soldier under the council's command, desperate to find out the secrets of the forge and stop the Sith. As for the dark side, I of all people should never criticise someone for falling to it. But it gave me a chance to return a favour, to save you from the dark side, when you saved me," he explained.

For a moment there was a tear in Bastila's eye. But then she grabbed the collar of Revan's jacket and brought her lips to his. He pushed on the small of her back and she wrapped her arms around his neck, both deepening the kiss and for a moment losing themselves in one another. For a moment at least.

"Observation: At that position she could break your neck master, recommendation:..."

"Thank you HK," Revan groaned.

He and Bastila separated, the latter, embarrassingly brushing her bangs out of her eyes.

"Have you studied the Codex on languages that Cora gave you?" Revan asked.

"Statement: I have studied in depth the language of the Asari and Turian species, conclusive statement: the Turian language is a more aggressive dialect than the Asari, perhaps drawn from their militaristic society, observation: I look forward to studying the Krogan language master," HK explained.

"But can you speak the languages?"

"Obvious statement: Protocol is my secondary function master!"

"Yes, and it's been a while since I've taken you out," Revan rubbed the back of his head and sighed.

"Correction: More than six months master!" there was a semi annoyed tone in HK's voice.

"It took us a while to track the Sith in our universe, we have the advantage here of knowing exactly where they are. But when we get to them, you're staying here, I want you to focus on our language problem, study the languages HK so we can solve the communication problem," Revan explained.

"Disappointed statement: very well master!"

* * *

Elsewhere, silence filled the cave that the group left on the planet were exploring. The Warden was at the front of the group, his lantern lighting the way. The Arishok was by his side, hammer held up ready to strike at anything that came out of the darkness.

"So you two are friends?" Liam asked, breaking the silence.

"That is what Kadan means," Arishok said.

"How long have you been here Sten?" the Warden asked.

"A few hours, my Karataam and I were escorting Rasaan to Par Vollen, we also had several Viddathari with us, freed from Tevinter slavers. There was a storm, and our ship was suddenly on dry land, desert land. We crossed it, a mere twenty feet before we walked into a rain forest. Then we were attacked by Bas in silver armour," Arishok explained.

"I understood a little of that," Canderous muttered.

"They were sailing on their way home with a priest and converts to the Qun, then the merger occurred and they were attacked by the Sith, did they take anything?"

"Members of my Karataam, and a few barrels of saar-qamek we had with us."

"Whatever that is it sounds bad," Jolee said.

"Saar-qamek is a poisonous gas, it doesn't affect Sten's people, but to others it drives them into a mad frenzy. What led you to here Sten?" the Warden asked.

"Darkspawn, killed what was left of my Karataam and our Viddathari and took Rasaan," the Qunari snarled.

"If they are able to turn Rasaan they'll have an ogre brood mother."

"But I will do what I must before that happens," Arishok said.

"So we have more people to rescue, we'd better hurry, good to have you with us Sten," Liam said.

"I am Arishok, Bas!"

"I think 'Sten' and 'Kadan' is between the two of them," Jolee chuckled.

"It is, Sten's people don't have as personal a way of naming people as we do, their names and their identities are their roles within the Qun. This man was a Sten, a kind of captain, when we first met, Kadan means friend so that is personal," the Warden explained.

The Warden continued walking down the tunnel, following his senses. He could hear the song of the darkspawn, the volume grew louder in his mind and he knew he was getting closer. Then there was the familiar scent, the shit of those kept imprisoned for too long, darkspawn flesh left to rot before it would be force fed into the mouths of those captured. Liam activated his helmet to block the scents out and the Warden didn't blame him, it was also smart in case blood sprayed towards his eyes. The Warden aimed his lantern at the wall, illuminating a row of chained prisoners. Stripped and naked women of multiple species. Liam gasped in horror, more vocal than any of the others for what was inexperience compared to them. Crisis response hadn't prepared him for it. Jolee had seen some horrors in his long life, but like Liam he was shocked and horrified. Canderous seemingly showed no emotion, but was angered by the sight. Such a thing was the work of monsters, not warriors. Only Arishok and the Warden seemed to show no emotion. Arishok kept watch as the Warden knelt by the side of an Asari prisoner.

"Hold on, we'll help you," Liam said.

"Ask her if she ate anything they gave her," the Warden commanded.

"Miss, everything will be all right, we'll get you out."

"Ask her the question!"

Liam was taken aback by the ferocity in the Warden's voice. He listened Liam speak with the Asari woman, all the while touching her forehead. Underneath the helmet he closed his eyes, and concentrated. The song was there, even before he heard the answer from Liam's mouth.

"They gave her a few pieces of meat and water, she was hungry," Liam widened in horror, seeing the Warden draw his sword and stab it through the Asari's heart.

An instant death strike, no suffering. Liam however aimed his rifle at the Warden's head, causing the Arishok to turn and raise his hammer.

"WHAT DID YOU DO!" Liam demanded.

"Shut up Kosta," Canderous snarled, grabbing his rifle and shoving Liam back.

"Stay quiet kid or you'll..." Jolee huffed in annoyance, hearing a roar.

"Great job," Canderous muttered.

Eyes glowed through the darkness of the cave. Canderous quickly fired his blaster, downing two Genlocks that came at them. Arishok swung his hammer, smearing a Hurlock's face into the wall.

"What was that just now?" Liam asked.

"I told you darkspawn blood is toxic, that there were worse fates than death, they take women so that they can turn them into brood mothers. And before that they infect them with the taint, which means a slow and agonising death, from which there is no cure," the Warden explained.

"I can sense more coming, such blood lust," Jolee remarked, igniting his light sabre.

"Seerabas," Arishok seethed.

"Not magic Sten," the Warden shined his lantern over another prisoner.

She was human, her face a mask of horror and sickness. Liam watched in shock as the Warden ran his blade through her heart too. Stab, slash, shoot and crush, they made their way through the cave. Four people became eight, old women, young Asari, and Liam's heart fell when he watched the Warden soothingly pat the head of a Turian girl, before running her through. He turned away from the group taking off his helmet and wiping his face with his hand. The young man shook his head in denial. When he turned to follow the group, he heard a muffled sound. A groan of some kind. He shined his torch through the darkness and walked towards a strung up figure. An Asari maiden, her mouth was gagged with her own torn clothes.

"My god," Liam whispered.

He took a few steps towards her, untying her gag and beginning to untie her arms. Suddenly, a knife flew past Liam's cheek. He raised his rifle, pointing it at the Warden, whose hand was outstretched. The armoured man walked closer to Liam, keeping his hands raised. He moved past Liam and yanked his knife out of the heart of a Hurlock.

"They ambush in the dark, using bound prisoners as bait," the Warden looked at the Asari for a moment, "Give her to Jolee, he'll be able to keep her safe."

Liam watched the man walk away, again shaking his head in denial. A few more prisoners were killed by the Warden himself, and others were cut down by him, freed from their bonds. Liam and Jolee stood guard over a few released prisoners, marked, but generally healthier than those the Warden executed.

"This isn't right," Liam said.

"No it isn't, but he's at least doing it for a reason," Jolee said.

"He's showing no remorse!"

"Don't rush to that judgement either kid, you have no idea what people are capable of hiding," Jolee's tone was like a teacher lecturing a student.

He used a few force healing techniques for those worse affected. But he knew there was a necessity to what the Warden was doing. They came into a wider cavern, and saw some prisoners chained to the walls, their bodies coated in black veins. Some were even coughing out blood.

"Kill me, kill me," a human girl continually whispered.

"As you wish," the Warden said, before stabbing her through the heart.

"Lexi, SHE COULD HELP SOME OF THEM!" Liam yelled.

"Most won't make it that far, and your doctor can do whatever she wants, she'd only be making them suffer more," the Warden said.

He cut the bindings of a young Salarian and picked her up.

"Rasaan," he heard Arishok cry out.

The Qunari knelt in front of a white haired woman. When the group arrived, they saw that her skin had black veins, and horns on her head. Arishok stroked her face and she grasped his hand.

"Nehraa, aqun ebra kata Rasaan," the woman whispered.

"Shok ebasit hisra. Meraad astaarit, meraad itwasit, aban aqun. Maraas shokra. Anaan esaam Qun," the Arishok chanted, standing and raising his hammer.

He brought it down on the woman's head and let out a roar. Hurlocks and Genlocks suddenly came out of the shadows. Arishok abandoned his hammer, grabbing one Hurlock by its neck and lifting it off of the ground. He squeezed the creature's neck with such strength that it broke, kicking a Genlock into the wall after that. Then he began smashing the Genlock's head against the wall with his foot. The Warden and Canderous rushed forward as more darkspawn appeared. Canderous drew his Vibrosword, slashing alongside the Warden. When the three men were done, Arishok's boot was coated in brain matter and bone fragments. He picked up his hammer and his old stoic expression returned.

"There's no one else left, we're leaving," the Warden said.

When they reached the entrance to the cavern, Liam finally vommitted, then he looked and saw the looks of joy on the faces of those they rescued. Joy that turned into broken hearts, when they realised what they lost. The Warden placed his hand on the rock, accessing his Earth magic. He triggered a massive Earth quake down the tunnel, bringing down the ceiling. Eventually the ceiling at the entrance of the cave began to collapse and the Warden stepped back, letting the rubble effectively close the cave. He walked past Liam, ignoring the glare on the young man's face. Liam's glare stopped when Jolee touched his shoulder.

"Don't be too quick to judge him Kosta, he doesn't show it, but I sensed great regret in him, and self hatred," the old Jedi said.

"It isn't enough," Liam muttered.

"You're right, it isn't enough," they heard the warden speak ahead of them.

He stopped and looked at his hand, it was still, not shaking. And that was exactly what bothered him. Raising his head, the Warden saw a younger man ahead of him, his skin tanned, a scar over his right eye. His hair was wild and brown, eyes red, and his eyes held such judgement in them. The Warden lowered his fist and walked past the apparition. Who he was before did not matter, only what he did next.

* * *

Cora crouched alongside Revan and Juhani. She was amazed by the stealth tech the crew of the Ebon Hawk possessed. Juhani apparently could generate her own stealth field with the force. Revan had to use a belt, the same type of device he had leant to Cora. Carth had landed the Hawk a far distance from the Sith gunships. They had set up a temporary camp, built pens for their new slaves. The Sith were not alone however, they had a group of mercenaries with them. A few Mandalorians in blue crusader armour, some basic thugs with blasters. Two worm like aliens crawled alongside a Sith officer, a human man whom seemed to understand what the two were saying.

"Hutts," Revan identified the lardy creature's for her.

"Given our new circumstance, it would be better to trade possessions, not credits, you two are the greatest slavers in the rim territories, right now there are vulnerable worlds filled with primitives and new species. We only need a few of each to study, the rest..."

"They're going to take this group as slaves, and give the Sith a few ships so that they can establish a slaving ring," Revan translated the Hutt's gargles and laughs.

"What about the mercenaries?" Juhani asked.

Revan remained silent, focusing and listening.

"Eventually we'll restore what was lost to us, even with Malak gone, the Sith will be able to fight the weakened republic," the Sith officer stated.

"Coruscant was attacked by a group calling itself the Merged Sorrow, the Chancellor was publically executed. They then broadcast across multiple channels the execution of the leader of something called the Chantry, that sounds like the main authority of the Warden's world," Revan explained, again translating.

There was a sudden roar of engines, and the troopers and slaves looked up. The clouds were cleared, revealing a ship with spinning turbines at its centre. It looked like it had been patched together from parts from a scrap yard. When it landed on the ground, the ramp on its belly slid downwards. Then the doors opened, revealing the man in the poncho and hat. He had a blask mask covering his lower mouth and underneath the poncho had a black guard on his left shoulder and belts wrapped across his chest. His boots clicked as he walked down the ramp, leading several people in black and red robes.

"Well, well, well, a Sith rat caught between two worms," he said.

"You dare Luka," the Sith officer snarled.

"Now, now, let's not get too hasty," the gunman spoke with an accent that sounded Southern to Cora. "The Hutts provide you with the ships, we provide the Hutts with guaranteed access to certain systems, my fellow mercs and I provide the muscle and you give us the slaves," Luka explained.

"Why are we even giving you anything?" Revan raised his eyebrows in confusion, translating the speech of one o the Hutts.

"Because the slaves by themselves are useless, you need something more, a little bit of magic," Luka chuckled as a Turian man was dragged out of the crowd of slaves.

"Let me go, why are you doing this?" the Turian demanded.

"It's a little something to make you stronger friend, apologies in advance, but it'll also be extremely painful," Luka tipped his hat and turned his back to the Turian.

He suddenly whirled around, drawing a Sidewinder from his hip. Two gunshots echoed through the canyon, and the Turian fell to his knees, both his caps blown off by the Sidewinder. One of the men in robes held up his hand, and an unseen force held the Turian up, ensuring he stayed in his knelt position. The other man in the robes began to pour a red dust into a circle. Then he drew a serrated dagger from his belt, viciously gripping the blade with his hand. He began to run his own blood with the circle of sand, the Turian's blood joining with it.

"This is the part I like the most," Luka said.

The mages put their hands together, some kind of dark energy flowing through their arms. Runes appeared around the circle, Cora recognised one symbol as the Uroboros pattern, and another as Omega. But other glowing black runes appeared to be old Norse, Greek and Egyptian. As the circle grew wider, symbols of languages alien and mythical appeared. The Turian's fear matched Cora's, even the circle of blood had turned black.

"By the force," she heard Bastila gasp.

Suddenly, a black pillar replaced the runes, shooting up to the sky. Within the pillar, all heard the Turian scream in agony. Other slaves screamed and recoiled in horror, hearing the tearing of flesh and breaking of bones. Luka himself shivered, as if watching a horror movie. The Hutts and Sith officers were just as shocked as the slaves were. When the pillar began to fade, the Sith officer kept one hand on his pistol. What emerged from the black pillar had only the carapace and head crest of a Turian. The Turian had been transformed, his arms stretched into metallic claws, mandibles extended with a barbed tongue stretching out of it. From his back a metallic tail was waving about. The creature let out a roar, eyes glowing black, the same colour as the scales and armour that had replaced the Turian's old clothes.

"Kneel," one of the mages said.

The Sith officer let go of his pistol, when he saw the creature respond to the mage's command.

"Here is our gift to you, the means to fill your ranks, and we have the perfect planet for you to gather your forces to take more diverse slaves than you've ever seen," Luka explained.

"Tell me more!"

* * *

The elf mage walked amongst a wasteland, wearing a black, unmarked parody of the Inquisitor's armour. Even his brand was crackling with black energy. He knelt as a singularity began to form in front of him. Mist poured out from the singularity and a pair of eyes looked through it.

"The merger is complete, I thank you for the aid you have given me, what more would you have of me?" the mage asked.

_**"The merged sorrows, are they attacking the new universe?" **_a voice echoed out of the portal.

"They are, carrying out their revenge, but what would have us do after that?"

_**"Whatever you please, this is your world now, for better or worse. You may live in it, let it decay, or fight that which comes next."**_

"What will come next? Reapers? The Evanuris?"

_**"Something as old as the Multiverse itself, those whom will not tolerate the barriers between universes being destroyed. Your role in this part of my plan is complete, do as you please."**_

The elf mage let out a laugh and smiled as the portal faded. A shadow darkened the sky, followed by the roar of a dragon, echoing like the sounds that emanated from Reaper ships.

"As you wish, Master Onyx," the elf said as he rose.

* * *

The Grey Warden was watching the Ebon Hawk when it landed. He saw the tired looks on the faces of Cora and Liam as they met, no doubt to speak of whatever horrors they had seen. Though many of whom they had rescued were happy to be alive, they had still lost a great many others. He remembered the anguished screams of the 'aliens', despite the language barrier, he could understand that much at least. It was also why he understood people's weariness around him. A few had even yelled at him, not that he would have been able to understand their curses. He also understood why, perhaps at this moment, he was the subject of a conversation on both ships.

"He will not step foot on the Tempest again," Cora said.

Liam nodded his head in agreement.

"Walk us through what happened again," Lexi said.

"We went into the cave to save people, he killed most of them, and he did it so casually," Liam said.

"No offence Kosta, but that's naiveté speaking, from what you've told me it's clear that he knew there was some kind of infection in those people," Drack said.

"But to kill them all," Suvi whispered.

Kallo and Gil were speechless, they were horrified by the story that Liam told them, even more so by what Cora had revealed about the Sith. Jaal was equally horrified, but he seemed to keep an open mind like Drack.

"I do not think the Warden is as heartless as you believe him to be Liam," he said.

"He killed those people and he didn't even flinch," Liam retorted.

"Just because he didn't balk from it doesn't mean he doesn't regret it," Jaal countered.

"That Revan guy called him an expert on those dark spawn, so I think we should put some trust in him," Drack said.

"But Drack, we're talking about a man from a world with primitive tech, and probably primitive medical practices too. I could have studied this 'blight' even found a way to cure it," Lexi explained.

"You would have needed a specialised lab for it, and time that those people probably wouldn't have had. Maybe the Warden was wrong, maybe there was a way to save them, or your efforts would have just made them suffer more and maybe it would had been better to try but you can't. It is done, and he's a good fighter and powerful too, which we can't afford to throw away considering the situation we are in," the Krogan veteran explained.

"We're not taking him with us," Cora repeated her order from earlier.

It was final, and no longer to be debated. There was no debate however on the Ebon Hawk, only the horrified reactions of the crew.

"He killed them all?" Revan asked.

"Yeah, instant kills too, quick and clean, no suffering," Canderous said.

"Statement: effective master, observation: he has done it before!"

"Do something enough times, and you don't hesitate, he wouldn't be the first person to do terrible things for the right reasons," Carth muttered.

"There was no malice behind it, I sensed regret," Jolee said.

"I never thought, I mean he seemed like a loner but...wow," Mission lowered her head and Zalbaar rubbed her shoulder.

"Cora won't allow him or his friend to travel with them in the Tempest, we'll have to take him with us," Revan said.

"Is that safe?" Bastila asked.

"I believe neither of them are a threat to us, and his magic just might be the key to stopping what the Sith plan for this planet they're going to," Revan said.

"A place where the worlds have been joined together and have formed the largest population centre there is," Juhani said.

Revan pushed a few buttons on the holomap, bringing up an image of the planet they would be going to next.

"Earth!"

Next Chapter 6: Hero's meet

* * *

Onyx: A recurring villain in my Gathering of Darkness stories, and the main villain of my story The Redeemer.

Next time, the main protagonists (or at least the ones of the first games) of the series finally meet.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, Mass Effect or Dragon Age

The Warden uses a Latin version of a chant used in another famous game series, that series won't be coming into this fic, I just thought the chant was badass :)

* * *

Gathering Darkness: Bio-Merge

Chapter 6: Heroes meet

Earth-it was a simple name for a simple world.

"So they've basically called their world dirt," Mission chuckled, sitting on the map display.

"It's a name, and it is what they have known their world to be for hundreds of years," Juhani said.

"There were mages with this group you spied on?" the Warden asked Revan.

"Yeah, they performed some sort of ritual on one of the Turian prisoners, they turned him into some kind of monster," Revan said.

He walked across the briefing area and opened one of the footlockers. The man pulled out a disc shaped device, and then a black Vibrosword.

"Mission, tweak that so that it'll be able to communicate on the Omni-tools, program the Tempest's communication codes into it," he gave the disc to the Twi'lek girl and then span the sword between his fingers.

Revan put the sword into a reverse hand grip and offered the other end of the handle to the Warden. The Warden took the blade and ran his finger over the flat of the blade, tested the edge and the weight. He swung the sword a few times, one with both hands, another with one hand and then a thrust in a fencing style.

"You collect weapons right? That is the most powerful Vibrosword in my universe, the Baragwin assault blade, bought from Yavin 4 station. Jolee told me what had happened in the cave," Revan explained, looking at the Warden for a reaction.

"In your universe, is there a disease that alters the very nature of the person infected, does it make them dangerous?" the Warden asked.

"There is, on Taris there's the Rakghoul plague, it turns those infected into monsters, but there is a way to cure it," Revan said.

"You're lucky, no such true cure exists in our universe," the Warden said.

"But there is a way to cure it?" Revan asked.

"Depends on what you see as cured, some would call the process a calling, I see it as what it is, a temporary halting of your death sentence. An end to sleep filled nights, if you're lucky, otherwise, drinking the dark spawn blood will simply guarantee your death, it reacts differently depending on the person. I understand your medicine is better, that you'd probably find a way to guarantee a cure. But how long would such a process take, would it work in time, or would the people given hope lose themselves just before you can cure them, would they be made to suffer for something they could never had."

"I don't know Warden, truthfully I cannot say, all I can say is that, there was no right decision, it's not one I can honestly say how I would respond to," Revan said.

"Of course it wasn't right, they are my reasons, not my justifications," The Warden sheathed the assault blade and tipped his head in thanks.

'People assume you're lost in both sides my friend, but no, I believe you are walking between both,' Revan thought as he walked away from the armoured man, and his giant companion.

* * *

On the Tempest, the Pathfinder crew had dedicated themselves to boosting their long range communicator. Gill did most of the coordinating, being chief engineer, he had Drack and Cora focus on heavy lifting, Cora with her biotics. With a few scavenged materials from the last planet they visited, as well as some tools they had borrowed from the settlement, Gill, with Jaal's aid constructed a communication booster. The once cosy looking briefing and communication room had been cannibalised, converted into a QEC.

"Just step on the pad Cora, it'll pick up your voice too," Gill said.

The surface of the pad glowed red as Cora stepped on, a light sweeping over her body.

"Cora, I ran a translation algorithm with the language data that the Ebon Hawk crew gave us, it isn't perfect but if most species of their universe understand human English then they'll at least understand a call for help," Suvi explained over the Intercom.

"Okay," Cora cleared her throat and set commanding determination on her face. "This is Cora Harper of the Andromeda Initiative, contacting on republic, council and initiative channels. We've recently gained Intel that a massive strike is going to be carried out on Earth. My crew and I are going there now, we request immediate support, as much as you can offer, please!"

They released the message through the communication channels. Channels that unfortunately could be picked up by forces besides the republic and the council. Within the illuminated light of a dying sun, a single man sat, a cigar between his fingers. He looked at a flickering image of the Andromeda Initiative operative, and listened to her plea for help. Taking from a drag from his cigar, he stabbed it into his ash tray.

"Harper, interesting," he half smirked.

His glowing blue eyes narrowed as he pushed a button on his chair.

"Mr Lang, retrieve General Petrovsky, give him these coordinates and go with him," he commanded.

His intent was uncertain even to the people who obeyed his orders. But it was something that would tip the balance in the events to come.

* * *

Shepard stormed through the corridors of the republic ship. He barged through crowds of troopers, engineers and pilots and even Jedi, making his way to the briefing room. When he got there, he hacked the door with his Omni-tool and barged into the Admiral's meeting with the Jedi council.

"We need to go to Earth," he said, before they could even speak.

"Commander Shepard, we were just discussing options," Dodonna said.

"Without including my crew in it," he pointed out.

"This is a delicate situation, we have intelligence that republic forces are in one area, being led by confirmed reliable military leaders from both the republic and the council," Zhar explained.

"We could always split our forces, but if the population of Earth is as large as our data suggests, we would need more than what we have to support it," Dorak explained.

"But if we can save as many lives there as we can, then we'll be dealing a blow to the cult and these Sith," Shepard said.

"Perhaps your decision is influenced only by your emotional attachment to your world," Vrook said.

"Of course my decision is influenced by that, I have fifty more men and women on the Normandy begging me to go back and do what I can to help the people there. We left Earth once to get help, what is the republic if not help?" Shepard asked.

"Master Vandar," Zhar turned to the short Jedi master.

The force does not cover Earth, difficult to sense anything there it is, yet, saving lives our priority must be," he stated. "Your Admiral Anderson, is he as good a soldier as you say?"

"Better," Shepard said.

"And the Alek and Revan helping him have not yet been tempted by the dark side. They will endure whatever the cult throws at them," Zhar explained.

"If it is possible to save anyone on Earth, we must make the effort, we might pick up troops there anyway," Dodonna said.

"So you'll go there?" Shepard asked.

"I'll have the fleet alter its course, will the Normandy be ready to fly with our drop ships?" the Admiral asked.

"We'll be ready," Shepard said. "And thank you!"

He performed the Alliance salute before leaving the room. Upon exiting, he saw Liara slowly walking down the corridor. She had a bandage wrapped around her forehead, and a half dazed look on her face.

"Shepard," she greeted him. "I am ready to return to my duties."

Shepard lightly gripped her arms.

"Light duties Liara, we need as much Intel as we can get, but we need you too," he said.

"Yes Shepard, I will do all that I can," she said.

They made their way back to the ship, where the crew waited. As Shepard hoped, everyone had already gone back to their posts. Their part of the hanger was also being cleared out, giving them space to launch and leave the capital ship. Before he would address the crew, he made his way down to the cargo deck and began putting on his armour. First the Kassa Fabrication leg plates with shield emitters, then the Rosenkov material gauntlets for gathering real time battle telemetry, the Armax arsenal shoulder plating with the VI aim enhancements, and his N7 chest plate and helmet. He sealed an M-96 Mattock onto his back, followed by a Geth Plasma Shotgun on his hip. Shepard finally holstered an M-11 Suppressor before walking up to the bridge. When he got there, he saw his squad mates already in full gear and armour, minus Liara, though she had removed the bandage across her head. Even EDI was in armour, the kind the N7 infiltration units used, whilst Garrus wore his heavier armour.

"Speech," Joker called out.

"You know how it goes, let's go save the Earth," Shepard nodded his head to his crew, whom all said 'yes sir'.

His crew was dedicated, and they were finally going to where the Reaper war had started for them. Back to the Earth.

Revan had meditated hard, trying sense what was going to happen on Earth. Sometimes, visions of the future could be seen through the force. But he understood that the future was always in motion, shaped by the decisions of individuals. That, and as Master Vandar had discovered, so had Revan that the Earth was blind to the force. It was strange for Revan to not feel the force in one area of the galaxy. But still, his mind was set and he would not be swayed. Standing, he levitated his light sabre into his hand and then opened the footlocker by his bed. Inside he pulled out the Star Forge robes. They were much like his Sith robes, that blend of traditional Jedi robes and armour infused with the Light side of the force, embodying his redemption. After putting those on, he raised to his face his mask. The mask he claimed during the Mandalorian wars, a symbol of defiance against the warrior race and his respect of the best of them. He pulled his hood over his head and pulled from the locker two more light sabres, both equipped with special crystals, mantle of the force and heart of the guardian. When Revan walked out of his quarters he saw his other crew in full battle gear. Mission had put on Echani light armour, sword on her hip and pistol in her holster. Bastilla, Juhani and Jolee were in Jedi knight robes. Zaalbar had Bacca's sword on his back and a bow caster in his hands. Carth was in a Heavy Exoskeleton, and Canderous in heavy Mandalorian assault armour, helmet included.

"May the force be with us," Revan said.

Simple words, for a simple mission. From the corner of the room, the Warden and Sten were already prepared. The Warden however couldn't shake his instincts. He was willing to lay down his life for others, but something wasn't right, he could feel it.

'I have a bad feeling about this,' he thought.

Out of Warp and the Mass relays they came, the protectors of the Earth. The Sith had already deployed drop ships across the continents. In fact, that was what the majority of the Sith forces consisted of. There was only two Sith star destroyers, against the republic fleet. On the surface of the planet, an elf in a hood grinned, seeing the republic ships. The Normandy was flying alongside several republic drop ships, which split from it. Republic fighters began to engage Sith fighters in battle, a battle quickly joined by the Tempest.

"Not bad," Joker said, seeing the Tempest weave between its targets.

The Ebon Hawk was in the fight too. Mission and Juhani had mounted the guns, and were shooting fighters on every side of the Hawk. Carth moved through the swarm of fighters, breaking away from the fight to enter the Earth's atmosphere.

"That's the ship Cora told us about," Bastila said, pointing to the Normandy in their window view.

"Normandy, this is the Ebon Hawk, do you read?" Carth asked.

"What the hell?" Joker's voice, shocked and confused crackled through the radio. "Kaidan, is that you?"

Carth raised his eyebrows, himself now as confused as the Normandy's pilot.

"This is Carth Onasi with the republic fleet, my team and I will be joining you on this mission, scanners are being disrupted, but republic forces have already begun to engage Sith ground troops," Carth explained.

Both ships flew alongside one another, down towards what was supposed to be Vancouver. But there was no city there, only the ruins. The Normandy deployed the Kodiac and the Ebon Hawk landed. It opened the main hatch just as Shepard's team stepped off of the Kodiac. Both groups walked into the middle of the ruin, keeping their weapons raised. They didn't interact, instead remained focused on the task. Tali had her Omni-tool, and T3 was using a built in scanner, Zaalbar looked through the scope of his bow caster and Garrus adjusted the settings on his eyepiece. So far, none of them had found any trace of life. Sten rested his hammer on his shoulder, briefly exchanging glares with Javik.

"Primitive!"

"Vashedan!"

Their curses were as alien to one another as their appearances, though even if they shared both, neither would respect the other. Shepard lowered his rifle and looked ahead. He saw what would have been the Alliance's head quarters, where he was before the Reapers arrived. Revan briefly crossed his path, the Jedi again trying to reach through the force.

"Nothing," Revan said. "There's no one here, there never was."

Shepard knew it wasn't a suggestion, he knew there was no logic behind it. But logic had been cast aside lately, the world had become impossible. So Shepard conceded to it, with just a little more time for proof.

"This is Commander Shepard on all frequencies, has anyone found any civilians, anyone who isn't a Sith?" he asked.

"It's no good, most are already engaged in combat," Canderous said.

"We've scanned and scanned, there's no one here, no plants either, not even moisture in the dirt. This place is a husk," Carth explained.

"The man whom possesses Kaidan Alenko's voice is correct, I have run similar tests Commander," EDI said.

"YOU ALL NEED TO LEAVE!" a voice screamed.

Ashley snapped and HK snapped their rifles around, both keeping them trailed over a patch of smoke that had suddenly appeared. Again Revan tried to reach out with the force, relaxing his arms and closing his eyes. Shepard however was on guard, walking cautiously over the ruins of an alliance building, rifle at the ready. He glanced at the Warden, whom had sheathed his Vibrosword. Smoke appeared behind Shepard and a thin bow with hollow cheeks walked towards him. The young man raised his hand towards Shepard's shoulder, only for a gloved hand to catch it. Shepard turned, seeing the Warden holding the wrist of the young man. As well as pale skin and hollow cheeks, the boy wore a primitive outfit of cloth and string. Resting on his mop of blonde hair was an odd leather hat, the tips of which curved downwards slightly.

"Cole," was the single word the Warden spoke.

"You are here, you are who Leliana loved, yet not who she loved, 'I'm not worthy, she's not worthy, we've both changed and violated the ideal of whom we once were,'" the young man stated, voice distant, eyes on the Warden.

"Who are you?" Shepard demanded.

"I think there's more to this one than there seems," Revan muttered.

"Katari," Arishok hissed.

"I came here to help, but the people were here, yet not here, caught between no place and all places, they're still screaming," Cole stepped back, putting his hands to his head.

"My cousin told me that Varric and Cadash convinced you to become more human, yet, you are here," the Warden said, stepping between Shepard's rifle and Cole.

"I was more human, was, but now I'm neither, spirit nor human, existing here and there," Cole ranted.

"What happened?" Revan asked.

"Dark magic, truly evil magic, twisted three worlds, mashed them together, everything is chaotic, everything is dark...but that is not here, here is nowhere and everywhere, lifeless and filled."

"Okay, weird," Mission whispered to Zaalbar.

"Cole, this planet, what has happened to it?" the Warden asked.

"Turned into bait, 'turn them all, make them ours, take them!'" Cole hissed in a voice that didn't seem to be his own.

The Warden turned away from Cole and looked at the ground. He knelt, running his hand across it. Revan and Shepard both stepped to his side, battle echoing through their communicators. The three men thought about the events that led them here, spying the ritual that the cult had just given to the Sith, the easy time the republic had reaching the planet. There was nothing on this world, yet large military forces had been called to it.

"You have to leave," Cole said frantically.

Though they each saw different angles, Revan the absence of the force, the instinct he gained over years of leading men and making strategies of such a kind. For Shepard it was the literal angle, the voices of all of the ground troops on the radio, the sight of the cult ships leaving hyper space. Then there was the Warden, whom felt the runes in the ground, sensed the magic around him. They looked at one another.

"It's a trap!" they said.

Runes across the ground began to glow red, partially blinding those present. In space, Joker watched in shock as symbols on every continent on Earth glowed. The entire planet had become a ritual sight. Screams echoed through the radio channels, both the Sith troops and the republic soldiers were in agony. The cult ships that had left hyper space first fired on the Sith ships, destroying them before assaulting the republic ships. Cult fighters flew towards the Normandy and the Tempest. Both ships swerved, avoiding the flurry of bolts and missiles that began to decimate the republic and Sith fighters. On the planet, the gathered fighters of Revan and Shepard's crews were screaming, consumed by the dark magic around them. They had fallen to their knees, even Zaalbar and Arishok were struggling to stand.

"No," The Warden dragged his hand across the ground.

His eye flared red through the darkness of his visor. Forcing himself off of the floor, he slashed his hand with the Vibrosword, then stabbed the blade into the ground. As the people around him screamed, he drew a circle around the blade, and then a few symbols. He tapped the hilt of the sword twice, then punched his heart before raising his fist.

"Aegis of the anchor, power of blood, fade shroud, shimmering shield!" he snarled.

The circle glowed red, and a red mark shined on the Warden's forehand. A red rift suddenly appeared over the heads of the group and expanded, consuming the area they were in. Suddenly the pain stopped, and the group rose. They were where they had been earlier, but the air was different. The sky had turned red, and it was as if ashes were drifting around them.

"What is this?" Vega asked.

"He uses blood magic to fuel his spell, and to create his own Mark of the rift, the power of the inquisitor. Solas would be surprised a human could do such a thing. By partly sending us into the fade, he shields us from the darkness, but not the demons," Cole explained.

Eyes glowed around the group and they raised their weapons. The Jedi ignited their sabres and Edi and Tali activated their Omni-tools.

"They are coming," Arishok said, holding his hammer at the ready.

"We protect the Warden," Revan said, igniting his light sabres.

"You heard him people, defensive perimeter, don't let anything through," Shepard aimed his rifle through the fade.

Demons of fear and terror screamed out, wrath and the towering pride demons roared whilst the cold demons of despair cried out. Voices echoed in the minds of the people gathered. Zalbaar saw heard the disappointed wails of his father and brother, Mission the false dismissal of her brother. Juhani and Bastila both heard themselves, corrupted by the dark side, calling them weak. Garrus heard his father chiding him, Ashley the voice of Kaidan condemning her survival. Vega's face fell in despair when he heard the people of Fehl prime cursing him, he left them all to die for Intel that was useless. Canderous was faced with the rage of his people, shadows of what they were.

"You must all resist," Cole said.

Out of the ground came demons of desire, sloth, wraiths and wisps flickered to life. Tali saw through her mask the form of her father, tempting her with the house on her home world. Carth saw Dustil and his wife, reaching out to him with the promise of that more peaceful time. Jolee's wife called out to him, urging him to stop punishing himself and to stop fighting. Javik saw his old leaders, telling him the war was over. The Arishok huffed at the attempt to imitate the Ariqun.

"Whatever you are all being shown, it is not real," Edi said.

"But there are very real things for us to blow up master," HK added.

Revan and Shepard looked up as a Nightmare towered over the group. To the Inquisitor it had been a gigantic spider. It had claimed the life of Warden Stroud, but the two heroes saw and heard something very different. Shepard heard the great hum, the ground shaking roar that the Reapers made. What he saw was the form of Harbinger, the trio of glowing eyes that often controlled the Collectors. Revan however saw a man, the giant figure of a man, his skin pale, half hidden by a hood and cackling. He wondered who this man was, but he felt not only fear, but the realisation that somehow this figure had led him to becoming Darth Revan.

"STAND!" they heard the Warden bellow.

The fighters were snapped out of their visions, the voices filling their heads replaced only by the word of the Warden.

"STAND AND FIGHT!" the Warden bellowed.

Looks of determination crossed the faces of the companions, and the residents of the fade charged. The Arishok and Zaalbar roared, both rushing their foes. Bacca's blade cleaves through the flesh of the demons and Arishok slammed his hammer through bone, crunching down on their heads. Blaster and gunfire flew across the distance between the fighters and the demons. Garrus fired from his Mantis, blowing the head off of one demon after another. HK opened his wrist, releasing a stream of fire that collided with the ice thrown by a despair demon. T3 opened the hatch on top of its head, releasing a foam that froze the legs of a Pride demon. Ashley then fired a high impact round, shattering the Pride demons legs. Vega and Canderous shot apart the Pride demon's head. Bastila and Juhani jumped into the fray, cutting down demons left and right. Juhani beheaded a desire demon that had taken the form of her friend Belaya, and Bastila briefly duelled an envy demon that had taken on her dark side appearance. Yellow sabres clashed with red and Bastila blocked a flurry of force lightning from the Envy demon's hand before she pushed through, stabbing her dark doppelganger through the heart.

"Statement: I have been eager to shoot meat bags for a long time," HK said, firing his rifle in rapid fire mode.

"That is not a joke," EDI remarked.

She used her overload tech, electrocuting a shade and passing the current through a sloth and desire demon. Then she gunned them down with her Carnifex hand cannon. Ashley and Mission threw grenades into a group of shades. Demons landed either side of them, forcing them to go back to back, shooting rifle and blaster. Javik's particle beam ripped through a pride demon's chest and he biotically slammed a desire demon into the ground. A fear demon flew towards him, only for the Arishok to crush its head with his hammer. The two warriors begrudgingly nodded to one another before throwing themselves into the fight. Garrus looked through the sight of his rifle, and Carth activated the targeting lasers on his blasters. Each shot they fired hit their targets, bringing down waves of the enemies before they could attack their allies. Jolee brandished his light sabre, cutting through a swath of opponents. He dodged the fist of a Pride demon, throwing his weapon through its eye. Zaalbar fired a bolt from his bow caster, hitting the Pride demons head. Then Vega fired a rampage rocket, knocking the demon to the ground.

"This is more like it," Canderous laughed, sweeping his rotating and blazing blaster cannon around.

"Advanced weapons, but primitive attitudes," Javik huffed, unleashing a biotic blast around the enemies surrounding him.

"ATAASH QUNARI!" bellowed the Arishok, swinging his hammer through bone again and again.

Tali fired her plasma shotgun at a desire demon, unaware of the Sloth demon coming behind her. However, Cole briefly appeared, slicing the demon's legs. It gave Tali time to shoot its head off. Cole flashed across the battlefield, cutting one enemy after another, just as they were about to attack an ally. The party members, other than the droids and EDI were unsure what had just happened.

"Thank you," EDI said.

"Who are you talking to?" Mission asked.

"Query: Are you blind? Statement: That pale and skinny meat bag has been helping us all this time!"

Fear, Desire and despair demons flew towards the trio of the Warden, Shepard and Revan. Shepard fired two shots from his shotgun and Revan jumped up, slashing through two demons. When two more landed in front of Shepard, he drew his rifle, activated his incendiary rounds. His targets burned to cinders when he shot them apart. A Pride demon stampeded towards Shepard, only for Revan to slash through its heels. Then he beheaded the creature.

"They'll swarm us, we can't stay here, and that ritual has to stop eventually," Shepard said.

"I'm sure our protector won't last either," Revan pointed to the Warden.

His hand was shaking, and they could see a line of blood running through his visor. The Warden coughed, a swath of blood pelting the ground. Yet still he stood, maintaining a spell that protected them from the dark ritual on Earth.

"Here, this should help," Shepard swept his Omni-tool over the Warden, giving him medi-gel to help with the pain.

"The force is still with you Warden," Revan said, his hand glowing slightly.

The Warden stood straighter, he was still bleeding, but he had regained some of his strength. He began to speak his chant, a chant of power to augment his spell and strengthen his own resolve. A psychologically proven fact, like the Kuji Kiri of Ninjutsu, that assisted the users in focusing their minds. He spoke this chant in a language of his world, Latin to the Earth born natives.

"** Ego os meum gladio,"**

Shepard stabbed a demon with his Omni-blade and tilted his head back, allowing Revan to throw one of his light sabres through another enemy. The Warden's arm shook and he briefly lowered it, before raising it with a determined roar.

**"****Ferro ignique est corpus meum sanguinem****,"**

T3 span in a circle, releasing a gas cloud. It quickly rolled away, allowing Ashley to fire an incineration round that blew up several demons. A Wraith fired several blasts of energy at Jolee, who blocked them all before Vega threw a frag grenade into them.

**"****Ego sum creatus mille super gramina****,"**

Cole appeared behind a fear demon, slicing its throat. As he disappeared, Bastila cut through a Pride demon and then stabbed a wrath demon through the head. Tali sent out her combat drone, hitting a wraith with several blasts before Cole slashed it. Arishok jumped at a Pride demon, just as Carth and Garrus shot its shoulders. The Qunari brought his hammer down on the demon's face.

**"Ignotum mo..."**

But the Warden couldn't finish his words. Blood shot out of his visor and he lowered his arm, the Inquisitor's anchor was sparking on his wrist, beginning to fade. The group looked up at the Nightmare, which reared its head towards them. Revan stepped forward, yelling and unleashing force lightning on the giant. His struggles only slowed the creature, the effects of his lightning shredded his gloves and began to singe his fingertips. Shepard and his crew fired their guns at the demon, adding to the barrage of attacks hitting the creature. It recoiled, roaring as the surroundings shifted. The ground beneath them changed, the scenery changed, and they returned to Earth, seeing the cult fleet devastating the republic forces.

"Shepard, Shepard, come on guys give me some response here," Joker's voice panicked over the radio.

"Joker, we're back," Shepard said.

"Where the hell did you guys go? Scans actually picked you up on the planet every five seconds," Joker explained.

"Magic," Shepard muttered, looking over at the Warden.

"No really?" Joker scoffed.

"What happened to all the soldiers?" Carth asked.

"Something tells me we don't want to be around to find out," Ashley said.

"Steve, come down and get us!"

"Carth, get the Hawk started up!"

After giving their commands, Revan and Shepard looked up at the sky. They saw ships coming out of the Mass relay. In space, Joker narrowed his eyes at the yellow Cerberus symbols emblazed on them. The Cerberus ships began to fire at the cult ships, providing support for the republic. On the bridge of one such ship, General Oleg Petrovsky stood with his hands behind his waist. Across from him, his arms crossed was Cerberus assassin Kai Leng, whom held a begrudging look on his face.

"Send up fighters, support what is left of the republic squadron, Apollo, Io, cover the flanks of the Hammerhead, Argus, maintain distance from the cult ships and continue missile bombardments," the general commanded. "Establish communication with republic flagship!"

"We have a line general," one of the CIC crew reported.

"Republic, this is General Oleg Petrovsky of Cerberus, we have come to offer support."

"This is Admiral Dodonna of the republic, help is appreciated, have all fighters return to their ships and plot a retreat vector," Dodonna commanded.

"Sir, scans are picking up ships coming out of hyper space!"

Dodonna looked towards the Cult ships in shock. Revan to looked up at the sky and removed his mask, his eyes wide in shock.

"What are they?" Bastila asked.

"I don't know how but, I know those ships, I think I remember," Revan muttered.

"Remember what?"

"What happened to Malak and I in the unknown regions!"

On the flagship of the unknown fleet, a man stood bound in a black cloak and armour. A light sabre hung on his belt, his skin was pale but had the scars of burns across his face. The man's eyes were set into a permanent frown, blood shot and yellow. His nose and mouth were covered by a type of breather mask.

"This is Darth Malgus, of the Sith empire," he said.

His voice echoed through the radio and the republic forces in particular braced themselves. The Sith ships fired, but not at the republic, the blasts and torpedoes flew straight into the cult fleet.

"We have come to provide support," there was a frustration in Malgus's voice.

The Warden looked up at the sky, seeing the incredible battle taking place in the stars. His knees quivered from the strain of the magic he had just performed. Technology must greater than his, magic more powerful than his, and he wondered for a moment what he was doing here? It was the last thing he thought before he slammed into the ground. The Arishok turned to him and yelled.

"KADAN!"

Next Chapter 7: Unlikely allies

* * *

Surprised? More surprises await next chapter, with some reunions and more characters meeting.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect, Dragon Age or Star Wars

* * *

Gathering Darkness: Bio-Merge

Chapter 7: Unexpected allies

Dark magic had twisted reality, creating pockets of atmosphere within space. The dark Jedi whom had executed the Supreme Chancellor stood on a meteor in one such pocket of space. He stepped onto the edge of a cliff like surface on the meteor, looking at the drop ships that revealed the mutated forms of republic and Sith soldiers. Beside him sat Qira, and on his left stood Talos. Luka walked towards them, his hands on his belt.

"Don't say I don't do anything for you," he muttered.

"I understand the Normandy and Ebon Hawk were there, on Earth, tell me, how did their ground team escape the effects of the ritual?" the dark Jedi asked.

"Magic I guess, didn't think it was possible for regular magic to stop dark magic though," Luka said.

"The caster would have to have considerable will power, the survivors escaped didn't they?"

"Yeah, but it's no problem, we know where they're going."

"Sanctuary," the dark Jedi whispered.

* * *

The Normandy, Ebon Hawk and Tempest flew with the survivors of the republic fleet and their new allies. From the Normandy, Shepard glared at the Cerberus carrier. Likewise, Revan stared at the Sith dreadnought. The difference between them was that Malgus knew a Jedi watched him. They felt one another's suspicion, anger and confusion, Malgus found it exhilarating and disappointing at the same time. Exhilarating that he was meeting a great Sith lord, and disappointed because of what he had become. They looked upon a planet very similar to Earth, though numerous ships had constructed a planetary defence grid.

"Incredible," Liara gasped.

"We could have used something like this when the Reaper's struck," Garrus muttered.

"Follow our lead," Petrovsky's voice spoke over the radio.

"Sanctuary, this is General Oleg Petrovsky of Cerberus command, bringing in new ships and allies," the man said.

"Verify!"

"When faced with the demand of surrender, Churchill said 'Never give in, never, never, never, never, in nothing, great or small, large or petty never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense,"" the general quoted.

A part of the defence network faded, giving the ships an octagon gap to fly through. Once they had all flown through, the barrier covered the planet again. Shepard noticed that much of it was like Earth, absent cities and scans indicated that the air was cleaner. Though there were odd energy readings, areas where dark energy was heavy. Fighters with the republic colours on them suddenly began flanking the trio of ships. No one of the republic universe recognised the models though, even Carth who had piloted nearly every ship in the republic fleet.

"Did they introduce a new model before all this happened?" Mission asked.

"I have a theory, but we'll have to wait and see," Revan said.

The green and stone of the world was vast, beautiful waterfalls illuminated deep caverns and cliffs. Birds flew across the sky, but also other beasts, beasts that Shepard had seen in science books.

"Dinosaurs, real dinosaurs," Joker whispered.

On the ground too beasts of many kinds stampeded across fields. Kodiac shuttles joined the escorting fighters, shuttles both Cerberus designed and Alliance. When they flew over a forest, they finally saw it, a grand city. Towering skyscrapers of Alliance and Asari design, temples, and spires from a cathedral that resided on an island on a massive body of water. As well as the river, there was a massive wall protecting the city, with turrets mounted on it. A smaller wall protected the city itself, men in both republic, Alliance and more primitive armour patrolled those walls.

"I've got a landing zone, bringing the Normandy down," Joker said.

The Normandy, Tempest and Ebon Hawk began to land. Their crews emerged in their everyday gear. The Tempest crew was welcomed by Nakmor Kesh, and Turian Pathfinder Avitus Rix. Drack embraced his granddaughter, the two of them slapping their head together.

"No Ryder with you I see," Rix said.

"We were hoping she would be here, is anyone else from the Initiative here?" Cora asked.

"Mostly strike team operatives I'm afraid," Kesh said.

Shepard, Ashley and James immediately saluted the familiar form of Admiral Hackett. The scarred veteran had by his side the Justicar Samara, whom nodded her head to Shepard. There was another woman whom Shepard didn't recognise. She had short black hair, a scar across her cheek and wore the primitive armour that marked her as a native of Thedas.

"Shepard, good to see you again, you remember Samara, and this is Seeker Cassandra Pentaghast, she's defactor leader of most of the Thedas natives with us," Hackett explained.

"Shepard, I understand you have two from Thedas on your vessel," Cassandra said.

"Make way!" Chakwas called out.

She and her staff walked down the hatch with a stretcher. The Arishok supported one end of it.

"Warden," Cassandra immediately rushed to the side of the stretcher.

"I'll show you to quarters, get rested up and we'll establish a meeting between us and the other faction leadership. We've got some planning and explaining to do," Hackett explained.

"Admiral wait, please tell me, what happened to the Crucible project?" Shepard asked.

Hackett stopped, pausing for a moment before he looked over his shoulder.

"We got away, but much of what we had built was destroyed by the merger event," Hackett said.

Shepard stepped back, nearly collapsing in shock. He rubbed his head and sighed. Everything he had worked so hard for had been destroyed. Tali patted his shoulder sympathetically, the other members of his crew were in equally poor spirits. Across from them, Revan and his crew stepped off of their ship. Waiting for them was a woman with ginger hair tied into a pony tail, she wore white armour with stripes of orange paint on it, a heavy blaster cannon was strapped to her back. Next to her was a brown haired man with piercings on his eyebrow and a type of cybernetic implant on the side of his head, he wore a red jacket and gloves and crossed his arms together as Revan and Bastila approached.

"This is weird," he muttered.

"A little funny at the same time," the woman said.

"Well let's get this over with, Revan, Bastila, I'm republic intelligence agent Theron Shan, I'm your descendent," the young man said, hesitantly smiling.

Revan and Bastila stood still for a moment, the former reaching his hands to rub her belly. She promptly slapped his hand away, frowning at him.

"Question, is she also related to Revan and Bastila, cause she sounds a little bit like her?" Mission asked, pointing at the republic trooper.

"We sound nothing alike," the trooper and Bastila said together, causing Mission to blink in confusion.

* * *

He opened his eyes, seeing the lights on the ceiling. Wires of some kind had been put through his arm, and a light was running across his body. He sat on the edge of the gurney, ripping out the wire and standing.

"You're awake," he looked over his shoulder, seeing Zevran, Oghren and Sten.

Once he had his trousers and shirt on, Oghren immediately hugged his leg. He knelt down slightly, and embraced his friend.

"We thought we had lost you for a moment Kadan," Sten said.

"Those 'experts' said that you would be out for days, but I told em 'you guys don't know the commander like we do, he's the toughest bastard on our world,' I knew you'd prove them wrong," Oghren slapped his back and smiled.

"I am glad you're all right my friend," Zevran said.

"How long have you all been by my side?" the Warden asked.

He spotted his armour, neatly tucked into the corner.

"They have almost never left your side," a voice spoke from the doorway.

The accent was Nevarran, with a hint of Orlesian, suggesting a long time spent in that region. He took a brief glance over his shoulder and recognised Cassandra Pentaghast, former Seeker, hand of the divine and member of the Inquisition.

"They visited more than your cousins it seems," she said, watching as he put his armour on.

"I only attended Bethany's wedding, and that was because it was to a fellow warden, is Nathaniel here?" the Warden asked before putting his helmet on.

"I'm afraid not," Cassandra shook her head.

"You must still be close to Divine Victoria yes, what is her response to the situation?"

Cassandra lowered her head, as did Oghren and even Sten. Everything went quiet, even the medical staff working in the next room seemed absent. Zevran stepped towards the Warden, looking through his visor and into his eyes.

"The cult, executed her," the elf said.

The Warden looked towards the elf and Oghren. He gained more knowledge from their guilty expressions than he could from an explanation. Slowly he grasped Zevran's shoulder, and the assassin quivered, his lips trembling.

"There was nothing you could have done," the Warden said.

Zevran collapsed, taking hold of the Warden's hand and crying.

"I'm so, I'm so sorry, so sorry," he whispered. "I know how much she...but I couldn't...I wanted to save her, I did!"

The Warden slipped his hand out of Zevran's grasp, leaving him to his tears. Cassandra kept her eyes on the Warden, seeing no betrayal of his emotions. She saw nothing from him, no quiver, no tears, as if Leliana was nothing to him. As if the news of her death was nothing but a simple piece of information, to be processed and then used. He walked past her, stopping at the doorway.

"Where are the others?" he asked.

* * *

At the grand cathedral, a room had been set up for the faction leaders to meet. On the top floor of the spire, a map projector had been placed on the centre of the room, along with a quantum communicator and an elevator for quick transport. Hackett stood with Samara, Avitus and Kesh, they were soon joined by Shepard with Liara and Ashley, and Cora with Liam. Dodonna and the council of Dantooine stood with Theron Shan and Revan, with Carth and Bastila. Across from them was the Sith representatives, Darth Malgus and a man in a black uniform, he had blue skin and red eyes, and went by the title Cipher 9.

"Quite company we are keeping," a voice muttered.

It belonged to a self appointed representative of the Thedas quarter of the alliance. Grand Enchanter Vivienne fanned herself as she waited. She did not stand at the front, that position went to the former Inquisitor. Though he was missing one arm, Edric Cadash still had a look and posture of authority. Standing close to him as always was Magister Dorian Pavus, representing the wardens was Blackwall, as both a representative of Kirkwall and the dwarven merchant's guild was story teller Varric Tethras. There as Cadash's bodyguard was Iron Bull, twiddling his thumbs under the judging eyes of the Arishok.

"Can we not get this meeting underway?" Vivienne asked.

"We still have others to wait for," Hackett said.

"Why have these primitive weaklings been given a voice here?" Malgus asked.

"I think there's some amongst them capable, besides, they have information we can use concerning this magic of theirs," Cipher 9 said.

The elevator behind the Thedas group opened, revealing the Warden and Cassandra.

"Why in the name of the Maker is he here?" Vivienne demanded.

"Who are you?" the Warden asked.

"Are you serious? Do you seriously not know who I am?" Vivienne looked at the Warden in shock.

"Someone important apparently," he said.

Blackwall, Varric and Bull covered their mouths as they laughed. Cassandra too coughed to hide her smirk as Vivienne huffed.

"Well this council is usually reserved for people with authority, are you still commander of the grey, do you still hold a lordship or a knighthood, in fact are you even relevant at all grey warden," Vivienne ranted.

"He saved us from a trap that would have turned us into monsters, and he bled to do it, so he's relevant all right," Shepard said, shooting a sharp look that silenced Vivienne.

Malgus's eyes widened briefly at that revelation, he looked curiously at the Warden before the lift door behind him opened.

"Ah, Cerberus and our newest ally have arrived," Cipher 9 said.

General Petrovsky walked in with Kai Leng, whom exchanged glares with Shepard. The Spectre remembered his friend Thane Krios, whom Kai Leng killed. A third man was with them, bald, with pointy ears signalling he was an elf. He wore simple clothes and looked towards the Thedas group. Cadash widened his eyes, before Bull let out a roar. The mercenary captain stampeded across the room, grabbing the new entry by his throat and slamming him against the wall.

"Solas," there was venom in Cadash's voice.

"Why is he here?" Dorian demanded.

"What's going on?" Carth asked.

"I get the feeling these guys aren't on the best terms," Liara said.

"What gave it away?" Ashley asked sarcastically.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't break your fucking neck," Iron Bull growled.

"I can turn you to stone before you can," Solas said.

"Little hard to do that when you can't breathe," Bull tightened his grip, making Solas gag.

"Hey, that's enough," Hackett said.

"Squeeze him like a melon Bull," Varric said.

"Good riddance," Vivienne added.

"Stop it now," Revan commanded.

"Should we..." Kai Leng motioned to the scene.

"Why? Things are getting interesting," Cipher 9 stroked his chin as he watched.

"ENOUGH!" Bastila yelled.

She pulled Bull and Solas apart with the force, keeping them levitated off of the ground.

"What's the history here?" Shepard asked.

"Apparently he's an old god," was the Warden's response.

"Solas was our ally in the Inquisition, he helped us save our world, only it turned out it was his actions that gave a mad darkspawn mage the power to breach the fade in the first place. And before this whole universe merging crap started, the Dread wolf there promised to destroy our world," Cadash explained.

"Not destroy, just restore the old one," Solas said.

"The only price being Genocide," Cassandra retorted.

"I'm not here because of that, I know how the universes were merged."

"I already know how they were merged," the Warden said.

"Unlikely, they used a very complex method not even the elven pantheon would have been familiar with, it took me time to ascertain the method but I under..."

"They dug tunnels through the deep roads that led to lyrium caverns, they then formed breaching runes with their blood, using the Inquisitors arm as the trigger, they were able to briefly link three universes together," the Warden interrupted. "The Lyrium of Thedas was the catalyst to joining them together, the dark magic did the rest, however insignificant our world's technology would be, even with dark magic the merger would never have been possible without our world," he explained.

"Impossible, you knew all of this, there's no way..."

"Hey if you think that's surprising, he actually created an Anchor, without an orb, without needing to kill someone," Varric grinned.

"And without having to permanently fuse it to his arm, or subsequently lose said arm," Cadash added, the glare in his eyes focused on Solas.

"Yes well, I do have information that will be important," Solas said.

"Then give it to us and leave," Blackwall said.

"That's enough, if this man has information, regardless of your history with him we need to listen," Hackett said.

"With respect Admiral, you do not know him like we do," Cassandra said.

"I know those guys," Shepard pointed at Oleg and Kai Leng. "They work for a terrorist organisation in our universe, that man was a former N7, a disgrace to the uniform, and he killed a good friend of mine."

"The Salarian councillor would have been business Shepard, that Drell was pleasure," Kai Leng grinned.

"Quiet Kai Leng," Petrovsky said.

"Everyone, same reason we are all here for," Vandar said. "Enemies from different worlds, even different times, yet brought us together the force has, for something more important than any battle we have fought in our home universes. Chance we have been offered, by the force to...

"Oh Vashera, let's just hear what the elf has to say," the Arishok snarled.

Some members of the groups grinned at the Arishok's impatience, and Vandar's disappointment at having his speech interrupted. Solas stepped forward, rubbing his bruised neck. He cleared his throat and began addressing the assembled representatives.

"Empress Celene is here yes?" he asked.

"Yes, she locked herself in her estate," Cassandra said.

"I believe that the Cult will come for her, but they will attack Sanctuary for more than just revenge. Everything has been carried out for more than just revenge," Solas explained.

"I don't know, the Cult's broadcasts made clear what their motivations were," Shepard said.

"But punishing the established governments of the three universes is only part of it."

"They linked the universes for a reason beyond revenge didn't they?" Revan asked.

"Yes, I am afraid we have become pawns in a war that is bigger than our universes, a war I was only able to discover through study of the fade. I was using the fade to spy on the cult, and it was through studying their pasts that I discovered how each one was drafted in a war between darkness and light."

"Oh come on, we're not entertaining this are we?" Ashley asked.

"Let's not go the sceptical route the council did, magic exists, so do demons, the Reapers exist and alternate universes exist too, so at this point anything could be possible," Shepard explained.

"Malak himself could fall out of the sky and I wouldn't bat an eye lash," Revan muttered, smirking to Bastila's annoyance.

"Each one was approached by an individual of great evil," Solas continued.

"Great evil like destroy a world kind of evil?" Varric asked.

"That's enough," Cassandra chided the dwarf.

"There are worse fates than death and destruction Varric, this creature of darkness drew upon the hatred and suffering each of the leaders of the cult had suffered at the hands of their established governments. Each one was given the tools needed to form the merger, to enact a ritual, as the Warden explained, Thedas was the key, the vast amounts of lyrium within it were what served as the catalyst," Solas explained.

"Like element zero," Liara said.

"Yes, with the magic they were able to merge our universes together, but that is only the start. Why do you think Sanctuary was formed? An accident? Coincidence? All of these places, from these eras, from these worlds, they were brought together by an intelligence that had just enough power to fight back in its own way against the darkness, to give light a chance, and champions to fight together on its behalf," Solas's explanation made the Jedi in particular think of the force.

"You're saying it's our destiny to fight together like this?" Kai Leng scoffed.

The Warden turned around and began walking back to the lift.

"Where are you going?" Cassandra asked.

"I used to believe in good and evil, and in the belief that the two were separate," the Warden began, his voice carrying more than Solas's did.

The others listened, out of respect for his actions, and out of curiosity.

"There was right and there was wrong, nothing else. And then, I found myself meeting people whom were not so simple as to be given such labels, I found myself facing situations that weren't as simple as right and wrong. I used to want to be a hero, but I found that there was never truly such a term, just something someone else called you, sometimes for the wrong reason," he explained. "A trusted friend of mine is part of a way of life that none in Thedas can abide, a way of life that dictates how a person must live their lives, yet..."

"People need that kind of life, from a certain point of view," Revan added and the Warden nodded his head.

"One of my best friends is an assassin, a killer who took lives for money, sometimes simply because someone had told him to, women, kings, peasants...children, yet..."

"You trust him with your life and love him like a brother," Shepard muttered, remembering Thane.

"Yes, and my own enemy, a man who wished me dead, who turned a nation against me, did so for the right reasons, and became like a father to me," The Warden said.

"But the world is that simple sometimes," Solas said.

Suddenly, the Warden swung his arm around. In an instant, he was in front of Solas, a glowing blade in his hand, pressed against Solas's neck.

"He can make a Spirit sword?" Vivienne gasped in shock.

The sword itself though had a curve to it, an elf Dar'Misaan. Such a shape could not be conjured by Knight-Enchanters, Solas dismissed it as a simple copy of the original Arcane Warrior style formed by his people.

"You spent many a time lecturing the Inquisitor about decisions he made, looking down on others because of their sordid pasts. All that time though, you were a hypocrite, harbouring an intent that would cause more suffering than what they had done. You speak of being champions of light and life, yet you gave up on life a long time ago, you focused on the past and on dreams, you chose to ignore the lives in front of you, disregard them for distant lives that you destroyed. In fact, if there's one person in this room Solas I'd go so far as to calling genuinely evil, it's you," the Warden explained.

No rebuttals came from the others from Thedas. Varric even nodded in agreement. The Warden's spirit sword faded and he again began walking to the lift door.

"They will come for this place, not only to destroy the last obstacles in their way, but to enact the next part of their plan," Solas said.

"I don't think he cares for what you have to say," Varric said.

"Whatever the next part of their plan is, if they're coming to attack this place, we need to be ready to defend it," Shepard caught everyone but the Warden's attention.

He was already using the lift to go back to ground level. Upon the exit doors opening, he came upon Zevran and Oghren, but they weren't alone. In the clothes she wore at Lothering was the Warden's cousin and fellow member of the grey, Bethany Hawke. She put a hand to her chest, tears welling in her eyes as she watched her cousin walk by. Stood side by side, hand in hand was Bethany's sister Marian Hawke, the champion of Kirkwall and her husband Fenris. The pregnant woman tried to reach out to her cousin, but stopped as he passed her. Cole stood near a wall, unseen but seeing the Warden. The man walked to a secluded part of the city, looking at his hands.

"Leliana," he whispered.

Tears of blood leaked through his visor and he squeezed his hands into fists. His anger rose, his body shaking as a silent vow began to form within the depths of his mind. A vow that when the battle for Sanctuary began, he would find the man who killed the woman he loved and destroy him completely.

Next Chapter 8: Calm before the storm

* * *

Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter, next time more character interactions and preparations for a major battle


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Age, Mass Effect or Star Wars

* * *

Gathering Darkness: Bio-Merge

Chapter 8: Calm before the storm

Sanctuary

He looked up at the moons, two moons in the sky, one blood red. Fitting it seemed that he predicted tomorrow that there would be a bloody battle. His red eyes had been shining, the white around them blood shot. But he had done his crying, his armour and clothes scattered around him, he got to work on the preparations for battle. Set in front of him was the multitude of weapons he had gathered over the years. Weapons he gathered during the Blight, when he protected Amaranthine, when he explored Amgarak, when he hunted Morrigan, weapons he inherited from his cousin's adventures in Kirkwall, and weapons gathered and abandoned by the Inquisition. The weapons began to float as he raised his arms, the cuts he put on them already beginning to burn scars into his flesh. As the scars glowed, so too did the weapons. Staves, swords, axes, lances, knives and daggers, bows and maces, clubs and shields, they floated and shined. And like ghosts they faded and the scars on his body glowed with the same spectral energy the weapons had. He raised one hand, gripping the wrist with the other. A moment passed, and a ghostly silhouette appeared over him. The glow stopped and he lowered his arms and looked up at the moon again.

"Soon," he whispered.

* * *

Shepard walked up the Tempest's ramp, resisting the urge to smirk at how similar it was to the Normandy. Of course Joker immediately rebuffed such a comparison, saying there was no contest between the Tempest and 'his baby'. He could see that the Tempest was complete, whilst the Normandy had been rushed out. Things seemed more 'cosy' and brighter on the Tempest. He walked up the ramp for the briefing room and shook his head with a chuckle.

'Things are definitely cosier here,' he thought.

"Commander Shepard," Cora called out to him from the computer that was supposed to link to the Hyperion.

"Lieutenant Harper, nice to finally meet you. There's a future version of the republic military here, why not a future version of the alliance," Shepard said.

"Technically we're not alliance, the Andromeda Initiative was privately funded by Jien Garson," Cora stated.

She was standing like a soldier at parade, awaiting orders, looking at Shepard with the deepest respect. Liam walked out of one of the rooms and immediately stood to attention as well. His respect was different, like a boy meeting his childhood hero.

'I'm not that old though,' Shepard thought. "At ease you two, I'm not your commanding officer," he said.

"Sorry Commander, it's just to us you're part of a history that we left behind," Liam said.

"I get that, a big risk for you both to take, a six hundred year journey, no chance of going home," Shepard said.

"We believed in what Garson was trying to accomplish."

"Back onto Garson, I had heard some things about her, but for her to be able to fund the Andromeda Initiative, it seems farfetched that, even with some other like minded corporations backing her she'd be able to pull off the Initiative. My friend Liara deals in information, she heard a few things about the Initiative, but nothing enough to know it actually existed," Shepard explained.

"It wasn't easy to pull off, we had hardships, we lost our pathfinder Alec Ryder," Cora said.

"I always wanted to meet Ryder, he and the other explorers from the Grissom expedition were heroes of mine, I'm sorry he didn't make it," Shepard lowered his head slightly and the pair nodded their heads in thanks.

"Alec's daughter Sara took over, and she was able to build us a home in Andromeda," Liam said.

"I'm glad, but I can't shake the feeling that there was more to the Initiative, all the money for a seemingly impossible venture, it takes me back to Cerberus's Lazarus project. To cut a long story short, they spent a considerable fortune to bring me back from the dead," Shepard explained and Liam and Cora were left speechless. "There's something I really wanted to ask you both though, you're from my future, the Reapers, did we beat them?"

"I'm sorry Shepard, any communication we had with the Milk Way only lasted a few years at best, but I'm afraid we have no idea how it ended. Sara had access to the audio files, but from what she told us the Reaper war began just as we lost communication with the Milky Way galaxy," Cora explained.

Shepard nodded his head, sighing partly in frustration but also grateful.

"Thank you anyway, it's good to see no matter what happens with the Reapers, there's still a future for the Milky way species," he said and walked past Cora to leave.

"Sir, Commander Shepard..." she fumbled nervously.

"Call me Shepard!"

"Like I said we aren't part of the alliance, but except for Avitus we don't have any other military leaders with us. You're our human Spectre, you've led people into battle, and we respect you sir. Please put us to use sir, we'll follow your orders," Cora explained.

"Fine, for starters, get some rest, we'll be no good in a fight if you're burnt out. Have your engineer coordinate with mine and your doctor with Chakwas," Shepard said before he walked off of the Tempest.

"So I guess it's official, we're a part of the Normandy," Liam smiled.

"Don't get ahead of yourself Costa," Cora said.

* * *

Sanctuary had an odd mix of republic, council and Thedasian entertainment. Zither played his lute, some Asari women danced and Matriarch Aethyta seemed to have come to an agreement with a dwarf and Twi'lek bar owners.

"This ale of yours tastes like there is dirt in it, typical of primitive brewing," Javik clicked his teeth as he put down his cup.

"You made the wrong choice of ale that's all, nothing beats the ale at Kirkwall," Varric said, patting the taller aliens back, much to the Prothean's subtle anger.

"You are shitting me Varric, the ale at Skyhold was much better than Kirkwall," Iron Bull slammed his cup against the bar.

"Watch it big guy, if anything on this bar is going to get broken it's going to..."even though Bull couldn't understand what the Asari was saying, he still smugly grinned as Aethyta strutted to another customer.

"Do you know what she's saying?" Varric asked, grinning.

"I'm not having those 'implants' put in my brain, and I don't have to know a person's language to recognise when they're flirting. Or the other signs of course, everything is about observation," Bull explained.

"Okay, what are you observing from the rest of the room?" Vega asked, looking at a the drink the Twi'lek gave him in surprise, it had steam coming out of it.

"Well, over in the corner you have that Mandorian..."

"Mandalorian," Cortez corrected.

"Whatever, anyway, old and grumpy over there looks like he's just itching for a fight. But the way he's sat on the chair indicates he's resting, the drink he's ordered was complicated, so he's not here for a casual drink. He wants to enjoy his time here and rest," Bull explained.

"All right, what about the cards table?" Cortez asked.

"That human Bainn keeps a cool face, but his cards are terrible, he knows no amount of bluffing is going to help him beat Isabela, he's admiring her of course and I don't think he'll mind losing to her, amongst other things. The other two though with those 'blasters' you call them, their legs are shaking, they're just itching to draw their weapons and gun Isabela down. What they don't know however is that Cole is standing behind them both, they'll suddenly feel a lot better when they decide to draw their pistols, or he'll slit their throats, Cole's always been difficult to read!"

Cortez and Vega looked over their shoulders at the table Isabela played cards at. Bainn smirked as he folded his cards and the other two touched their holsters for a moment. For a brief moment, Cole appeared and the two men seemed to calm.

"That is freaky," James shivered.

"Magic buddy," Cortez grinned.

James was about to drink when an Aqualish smacked his shoulder. The alien spoke in his native language. Though James had begun using the updated Omni-tool, Aqualish wasn't a language on there. But he had been in enough bar fights to know when someone was challenging him.

"He doesn't like you," a scarred human (at least James thought the man was scarred) tapped his shoulder.

"That's too bad ," James huffed.

"Understandable though, I don't like him much either," Steve said.

"Hey pal!" a Batarian and Vorcha suddenly walked up to the pair from the republic, carrying out the same gesture. "My friend here says you look like alliance types, we don't like alliance types around here," the Batarian said.

"What are you trying to say alien?" the scarred human growled.

It was that moment that Mission walked by, tiptoeing and whispering something into the human's ears. He widened his eyes, then let out a great yell. The human jumped at the Batarian, the grappling pair rolled across the floor

"HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT ABOUT MY MOTHER!" the human yelled.

The Vorcha grabbed him from behind at the Batarian punched him across the cheek. Mission tugged on the Aqualish's collar and whispered something into his ear. His fur shaking in fury, he ran at the Vorcha and grabbed him by his neck. They tumbled onto the cards table, knocking the coins and cards off of the table. Isabela and Bainn made sure to keep hold of their drinks. The pair slipped away from the fight as the other players punched at both the Aqualish and Vorcha.

"Kick them in the quad!" Aethyta laughed.

"What did you tell the big guy?" James asked Mission.

"That the Vorcha said his mouth looked like something's butt," Mission said.

Iron Bull smacked the bar, rolling his head back and bellowing with laughter.

"His mouth does look like an ass, CHARGERS!" Bull yelled. "Get your gloves off and into the fight, don't draw unless they do, and if you get knocked down, KNOCK THEM DOWN HARDER!"

He ran with delight into the fight, followed by his mercenary captains.

"Should we stop this?" Cortez asked.

"Nah, let them have their fun," Varric said.

"They need it," Cole suddenly appeared between Vega and Cortez, making them both spit their drinks out. "Haven't had a fight in a while, have to hit something, want to taste blood. Must lose myself in this, distract me from the grief," Cole chanted, sitting next to Mission and Zaalbar.

"Here kid, something soft, I'm not familiar with Twi'lek ages but I'm guessing your voice hasn't broken yet," Aethyta put a drink in front of Mission, smirking as she glared.

"I'm old enough," she said.

Zaalbar tilted his head back, and then shook it so that Aethyta and not Mission could see him. Bull was laughing as he threw a Vorcha and a Selkath across the room. He eagerly charged into a Krogan, impacting his head with the red scaled alien. They stumbled back as the fighting continued around them, tables being thrown across the room, bottles breaking over heads and fists colliding with teeth. Zither changed his tune to a more aggressive one, egging the fighters on. Through it all, Canderous sat peacefully drinking. He briefly crossed eyes with Drack, who took a seat across from him. The old Krogan raised his cup to Canderous and the Mandalorian returned the gesture. In the alleyway of the bar, Isabela stood against the wall, Bainn stood in front of her stroking her cheek. He was about to flirt when she pulled him into a kiss.

"So we've all been part of crews that saved the galaxy," Vega muttered.

"Technically we're late additions James," Cortez said.

"Traynor too!"

"All before I turned fifteen," Mission patted her chest proudly.

"Galaxy? I don't know, a city once yeah, a country, definitely," Varric said.

"We saved the galaxy too," Cole said. "The Breach grows, expands, have to stop or it'll consume all, nations, world, stars. We saved worlds as well, my mother, my brothers and sisters, the local chantry, oh thank goodness the Inquisition saved my goats."

Zalbaar then let out a few grunts and growls.

"Wow Big Z, that is deep," Mission said.

"What did he say?" Varric asked.

"He said that no matter how small an act may seem it makes a large difference, every time we protected someone from exchange thugs, or gave someone a med pac, we were saving a world," Mission explained.

"Hawke had a habit of getting involved in other people's business, she always helped people. The Inquisitor too, sometimes the most ridiculous things," Varric muttered.

"Shepard too, looks like we all hung out with people that try to help as much as they can," Cortez said.

"It's been troublesome at times," Varric said.

"It was fun," Mission said and Zalbaar roared in agreement.

"It's our job to help people, our duty, to make sure disasters don't happen," Vega said and Cortez nodded.

A silence filled the air around the five companions of heroes. What Vega had said had ripped the joy from Mission and the amusement from Varric. It was then they realised they had nothing in common save one thing. They had each been drawn to, and would continue to follow individuals whom had dedicated themselves to a cause. To establishing order, helping others and saving lives.

* * *

Though Revan sensed that one such soul was dedicating himself to revenge at this very moment. Even though Revan sensed little of the force in those from the Milky War and Thedas, he recognised rage, even when it was hidden by a mask. He stood on the castle wall, seeing if he could spot the Warden. Something else though drew his senses, through the force he could feel the great anger of one whom had been born of the dark side, raised with it. The idea of a pure born Sith had never been something he thought of, most Sith he knew of in his era were former Jedi. Yet when he turned to face Darth Malgus he saw one whom was truly Sith.

"If you're here to kill me could you make it quick, I have a meeting with the Jedi council in a moment and I'd rather miss it," Revan said.

"If I had planned to kill you Revan I would not be sneaking behind you," Malgus said.

"I see, so what is it you wanted to discuss with me, or were you seeking to take a look at a part of your history?" Revan asked.

"A minor part of our history at best, you attacked the republic, failed, having not even weakened it. Hundreds of years later, we returned and I faced your descendent Satele Shan in battle, slaying her master," Malgus explained.

"You say that with pride," Revan narrowed his eyes at the Sith.

"Is that...anger I sense, perhaps you are no mere Jedi," Malgus's eyes gave away the fact that he was smirking.

"I am a Jedi, however the Jedi are not the owners of the force. Their tenants though reliable foundations are restrictions that need not apply. As you have said, you'll face my descendent in battle, that is a sign that the force is not poorer because of my love for Bastila," Revan explained.

"Love can be as much a source of strength as it is a weakness," Malgus said and Revan widened his eyes in surprise. "There is a great many things you do not know of the Sith, I came to get the measure of you, now I see, had you had chosen the dark side, the republic would have fallen much sooner."

"It hasn't fallen yet," Revan said as Malgus walked away.

* * *

Within the halls of what was once a Jedi temple, Cassandra, Bastila and Liara sparred with long swords. The Asari stumbled as Cassandra aggressively slammed into her defences, Bastila though more graceful had just as much skill. She simultaneously defended herself from Cassandra and Liara's attacks, but she could feel her knees waver under Cassandra's assault.

"When you said you had techniques to help me with the force, this is not what I had in mind," Liara said.

"You may never be able to use the force as a Jedi does Liara," Bastila said.

"And your control of the blue magic makes such a thing redundant anyway," Cassandra added.

"Cassandra, it is called biotics, there's nothing to do with magic, it is a series of electrical reactions occurring within my nervous system, releasing mass effect fields..."

"I did not ask for a lecture!" Cassandra shoulder barged Liara, knocking her to the ground.

When Liara raised her head, Cassandra put her sword underneath her chin.

"Had that have been an enemy, they would have seized the opportunity," she said.

"I think that's quite enough," Bastila lowered her blade, touching Cassandra's shoulder. "We don't want to injure one another before the battle."

"I apologise," Cassandra offered Liara her hand and the Asari took it.

"That's quite alright, I understand that the Divine was your friend," Liara said.

"Yes, Leliana was her name before becoming Divine, we were joined only by our mutual love of the Chantry and our duties to the previous divine. We both carried out her will," the woman took a seat on the balcony overlooking a market square. "Leliana's duty was spying, black mail, assassination even, but she was a better woman than I, or at least they made her a better person."

"They who?" Liara asked.

"After Justinia's death, Leliana was in a dark place, she doubted the maker, doubted herself. She would have become unnecessarily ruthless, if not for the Inquisitor making her see reason and her love for the Warden," Cassandra explained.

"She and the Warden were lovers?"

"I do not know if they had any sort of relationship beyond letters, but I do know that for a long time they travelled together after their first adventures. And I saw an earnestness in Leliana's eyes, one she never showed anything else. She was good at masking her emotions with her work, she could be asked by the divine to invoke the massacre of an alienage and she would never show how she truly felt. But when it came to him, she could never lie, she became her true self with him."

"So it was one sided?" Liara asked.

"Somehow I don't think so, I could sense it from him when he left the council chamber," Bastila said. "Great anger, beyond what even those whom have fallen to the dark side can feel."

Cassandra raised her head, looking at the Jedi in shock.

"If he were to give in to such anger, what would become of him?" she asked.

"I would fear more for the world if he was to give in to that hatred," Bastila said.

"Is it really that complicated, would vengeance not give him closure?" Liara asked.

"Perhaps, if he hadn't been the man he was before, I think if he were to take revenge, then it would mean the end of the man that Leliana loved," Cassandra said.

* * *

It was surprisingly, in the library of the grand cathedral that Johlee, Oghren, Zevran and Jaal decided to spend their time. The Warden's two companions looked at the table Jaal and Jolee sat at, both crossed legged with their eyes closed.

"So what is this supposed to accomplish?" Oghren asked.

"I believe the crows tried something similar with me, meditation they called it," Zevran said.

"Sometimes in silence you can achieve clarity and focus," Johlee said.

"I'm worried about our friend, he won't let anyone see him," Oghren said.

"You've known him a long time yes, has he ever given you reason to doubt him?" Jaal asked.

"Oh we doubted sometimes back in the day, but he had this way of convincing us, we could act how we wanted with him and he always understood. Eventually, we started changing, for the better I'd like to think," Zevran explained.

"You really care about that man don't you?" Jolee asked.

"I named my son after him," Oghren smiled proudly.

"I loved him once," Zevran said and the trio, even Oghren, looked at him on shock for a moment. "I wanted him to love me, but then I realised, he already did, just not in the way I wished. He has so much love in him, for a time he wasn't capable of hating anyone, he believed in hope and I believed because of that. He's my brother, I'd give my life for him!"

"Same here," Oghren said.

"Because you know don't you?" Jolee asked.

"That he would proudly do the same for you," Jaal said.

"Those we travel with, have that affect on us," Jolee laughed.

* * *

Shepard and Revan walked into the market square, where shop keepers from across the three worlds had set up their wares. It was also where a majority of the refugees had gone to. They sat in the moon light, some able to converse because of the translators Tali had helped design.

"I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favourite store in _Sanctuary!_" Revan turned his nose up at the clumsy attempt to alter the Shepard endorsement.

'Also, Shepard has a lot of favourite stores,' he thought.

The Jedi noticed the Commander speaking with a couple by the fountain. It was a Thedas model, showing some kind of holy figure. He began walking towards Shepard when the man turned away from them. Shepard smiled, Rebekah and Michael had reached Sanctuary after their segment of the Citadel was teleported into republic space. Though apparently, Jedi there found their son to be force sensitive. Shepard had done his share of giving them recommendations back in his world, and offered only for them to do what they felt was best. He was no expert on the Jedi, so he could offer no real help.

"Shepard," Revan called to him.

"Hey," Shepard nodded to the man.

"I tried to offer the council some assistance in preparing for battle, but they're confident in the combined efforts of the military force they've put together, Jedi, republic troopers and soldiers, alliance marines and warriors of Thedas, given a little more than steel for their weapons of course," Revan explained.

"I'm no tactician, I've always been a soldier first, give me a mission and I'll lead a squad to carry it out," Shepard said.

"Yet you are a leader, at my most defining moment I had a clear path, it didn't mean I didn't sometimes walk off of it."

"To help others," Shepard smiled in understanding.

"Exactly, and sometimes the experience was its own reward," Revan said.

"Not much else to do right now but help people, even if it's as small as telling people to stay in the shelters until its safe," Shepard said.

"Yes, what's coming will be unlike anything we've ever faced before, having heard of the things you've done and seen the respect your people regard you with I must say, it will be an honour to fight beside you," Revan explained.

The Jedi offered Shepard his hand, and he shook it, both looking at each other with respect and admiration. Both looked towards the back of a man speaking with Rebekah and Michael. He wore a blue and white shirt, had pale skin and grey hair.

"It's your choice in the end, but if your son has something special in him, which he can use to help others, he's going to want to learn to use it one day. Still, he needs his parents in his life, keep him with you until he can make the decision himself," he explained.

Shepard and Revan raised their heads, both recognising the man's voice. They couldn't see his face, but they knew that he hadn't yet given up on who he truly was. He walked away and both Rebekah and Michael seemed much more at ease than they were before.

* * *

Ashley rubbed her eyes as she walked through the streets of the city. She came to a stop when she heard a familiar voice.

"They certainly seem more heavily armed, but the controls haven't really been updated, not a lot of change to fighter operation systems in the future I see," Carth said, standing in front of him were two white armoured republic troopers, the ones apparently from the future of his world.

"We don't have enough pilots for what we have sir," one of the men said.

"That's why I'm going to pilot one, the Ebon Hawk may be fast but it's no battleship," Carth said and the men nodded, saluting him before they marched away.

'God, he sounds so much like Kaidan,' Ashley thought.

Ashley stepped out from the corner of the wall as Carth repeated her earlier action, rubbing exhaustion from his eyes.

"I've seen that look before, you just been with your politicians?" Ashley asked.

Carth looked towards her and chuckled. For as much as Carth sounded like the L2 biotic, he certainly didn't look like him.

"Red tape is universal, or multiversal it seems," Carth said.

"Big word, way above the pay grade I expected to get to," Ashley said.

"Tell me about it, never thought my career, my life even would take this turn," Carth looked at the street ahead, seeing another whom sounded familiar to Ashley.

Although the one called Marian Hawke didn't have the same impact on Ash as Carth had. Then again she and Bryn Cole never really spoke, Ashley appreciated that the former Cerberus scientist was one of many manipulated by the organisation. Hawke though definitely didn't resemble Doctor Cole.

"Hello, nice to meet you both," she said.

"I heard you're the warden's cousin, is that true?" Carth asked.

"He is, though we don't exactly have family reunions, a couple, it was nice," Marian muttered.

"I take it you didn't grow up near one another," Ashley said.

"We've lived very different lives, but I've always tried to be more like him, at least when he was named the hero of Ferelden. He was a hero to my sister and I, we so wanted to meet him, talk to him, be like him," Marian laughed as she sat on a nearby bench, holding her stomach.

"What happened?" Ashley asked.

"Life I suppose, I had my adventures and hardships, despite this he still went through much harder trials, the kind of people I faced in Kirkwall had monsters beneath their faces. Cousin Amell, he spent day after day with monsters. He just wandered the deep roads, killing darkspawn left and right, even some of his fellow wardens said he was lost. Then one day, when I'm on the road with my husband Fenris, cousin turns up and says 'I'm sorry I didn't find you sooner,'" Hawke explained.

"He wanted to put things right with you, be part of your family?" Carth asked.

"What he wanted? Probably, but, what he did, for better or worse, was keep his distance, just being in the background whenever he did see us," Hawke said.

"It was to protect his family, I'd do anything to protect mine," Ashley said.

"I know a big sister when I see one," Marian grinned.

"I got three, Abby, Lyn and Sarah, I looked for them but none of them are here, you?" Ashley asked.

"My sister Bethany, we had a brother, her twin, Carver," Marian lowered her head, stroking her pregnant belly as she spoke. "He was killed by the darkspawn, protecting our mother!"

"At least he saved her," Carth said.

"That day," Marian muttered.

"Any other family?" Ashley asked.

"My uncle Gamlen, my cousin Charade, the Warden and my husband. But that doesn't mean that's the only family I have, I have three more sisters and two brothers," Hawke grinned, thinking of all the friends she made, her companions during her Kirkwall adventures.

"Family is what you make it," Ashley nodded in agreement. "In that case I have two sisters and four brothers," she thought of the original Normandy ground team, and Joker too.

"That's a pretty crazy family, not sure I'd say the same about my crew, Mission would probably make some crack about my age and trying to be a father to her," Carth explained.

"Do you have any family Mr Onasi?" Hawke asked.

"My son Dustil, we only recently started talking again, he's not here but I'm going to find him," Carth said.

"This child is the best thing in my life, but, part of me wishes that Fenris and I picked a different time to have children. I don't want to sit with the women and children, waiting for danger, hoping and praying," Hawke explained.

"Then don't think of it as waiting," Ashley said, and Carth nodded.

"Think of it as protecting your child, just like I'm sure it's how Fenris is going to be thinking of it when he's fighting," Carth stated.

Marian smiled at that small comfort, and the trio looked up as the sky began to turn red.

Later on, three heroes prepared. Within the armoury of the Normandy, Shepard looked over his weapons and armour, already in his hard suit. On the Ebon Hawk, Revan wrapped his robes over his body, his gauntlets and mask on the floor. With the sun rising over him, circuits of glowing red lines glowed across the Warden's shirtless body. Shepard looked over his Omni-tool, sliding out the blade, he pushed a few buttons then put the tool to his shoulder, testing the fortification tech. Revan floated off of the floor in his meditation stance, listening through the force. The Warden mashed lyrium dust in a bowl, pouring them into vials and adding them to his pack. A grenade launcher, pistol and sniper rifle were on the armoury table, and Shepard was adding upgrades to his Valkyrie assault rifle. The Jedi ignited his light sabre, illuminating himself in the darkness and doing a few drills with the remote. Energy circulated around the warden and he crouched by his armour and weapons. Putting on his plates of N7 armour, Shepard thought of the woman he loved and the people he would be protecting from this point forward. Revan raised his mask to his face, fastening it into place, the force was with him and all he needed to do now was fight well. His armour on, the Warden looked at the helmet that was more his face now. Shepard fixed his weapons to his back and walked out of the Normandy, his squad mates and the Tempest ground team one by one joining him. Revan put his hood over his head, the crew of the Ebon Hawk standing up and following him out of the ship. The Warden sheathed his short sword and joined Oghren, Zevran and the Arishok. They stepped aside to reveal Cassandra and Black Wall in their armour, Iron Bull with his axe resting on his shoulder, Varric stood between Bull and Fenris, the former slave had his sword at the ready and next to him was Bethany in her warden gear. As the ships of the cult appeared in orbit, the three groups stood behind their leaders.

"Let's get out there," the three men said.

Next Chapter 9: Swarms from orbit

* * *

A little character interaction, hope I did them and what people hoped would happen when the characters meet justice.

Next time the battle for Sanctuary begins


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Age, Star Wars or Mass Effect

* * *

Gathering Darkness: Bio-Merge

Chapter 9: Swarms from Orbit

"Time to hold the line," Shepard whispered, looking up at the sky.

He could see them, see the enemy up there. From the republic towers, fighters began to fly out. Carth was in one of those fighters, taking up to the sky and seeing the Cult ships beginning to engage the republic freighters and Turian and Alliance ships. Trident fighters were already launched from the ships, Steve having put on pilot's armour and a helmet.

"Getting into formation now, Red group on me," Carth said.

"Blue group form up and support red group's left flank," Steve took command of the Alliance fighters just as Carth had for the republic.

"Admiral Dodonna, this is General Guldo, I will take command of the republic forces and carry out attack operations as agreed," a Mon Calamari officer said.

"This is Captain Proximo, forming a defensive line with the remaining ships around the shield generator," a Turian in onyx armour said.

"I don't feel any different, this space magic of yours kicked in yet?" Steve asked.

"It isn't space magic, its the force, and it might just be what guarantees us a victory in this battle," Carth said.

The man's confidence took Steve back to the briefing that their three groups shared. It was almost comical how they gathered in the Tempest's briefing area. It was the largest place for them to gather and look at the holographic read out of the battle.

"We'll keep the Ebon Hawk out of the battle, and have it take position in the mountains, there, Bastila will use battle meditation," Revan explained.

"Battle what now?" Oghren raised his eyebrows in confusion.

"Some kind of buffing magic I presume," Dorian said.

"It isn't magic," Mission said.

"All the same to us, what's meditating going to do?" Garrus asked.

"Through the force, Bastila's power can affect entire armies, it'll give our soldiers motivation, coordination and spread disorder and weakness amongst the enemy," Carth explained.

"Things that can tip the balance in a battle," Shepard noted.

"Something like that..." The Warden muttered.

When the fighters clashed, it didn't seem any different to Steve than any other battle. He swerved between blaster fire, targeting the back of opponents and firing rounds into their engines. As advanced as the fighters were, they still had systems that when hit, would explode. What the tridents lacked in defence, they made up for with speed, striking quickly. But Steve watched a few of his squad mates go down. Likewise Carth saw a good few republic fighters go down for every cult craft they shot down. On the planet, Bastila sat cross legged in the hidden Ebon Hawk, her eyes closed, but mind far from at peace. The cult ships exchanged fire with Guldo's republic ships, the Hammerheads unleashed barrages of turbo laser fire. Captain Dalak stood on the bridge of his ship, seeing his crew work with an efficiency no Hegomy force could. As good a captain as he was, this was something else. But the battle would not be won in space, but on the ground.

"Calliston, are your preparations complete?" Dalak asked through the radio.

"Oh course," a man in a red robe said.

Red Lyrium fonts had been set within the hanger, red robed mages stood there, red versions of the anchor glowing on their hands. They surged with red sparks of electricity. The ship fired a multitude of pods, which flew through portals conjured by the mages. Then, on the planet below them, the portals appeared above the city and began raining down on the city. But the pods slammed into a barrier of blue energy, biotics. Within a circle tower, Vivienne and mages of Orlais and the Free Marches stood with a collection of Asari biotics, many of them Justicars like Samara. When the briefing took place, Vivienne and Samara had been there, proposing a plan to the group.

"Biotics make for a powerful defensive barrier, but they are still limited," Vivienne said to them.

"What's your suggestion?" Carth asked.

"Why magic of course darling, if Bastila's battle meditation ability does as you say, then it will assist my fellow mages in the creation of buffing runes that will amplify the ranges of the biotic barriers," Vivienne explained.

"Both groups though will still require absolute focus, so long as we project from a high point then we will form a barrier around Sanctuary itself," Samara added.

Vivienne coordinated and guided the mages, and Samara did the same for the biotics. Both differed though in the fact that Vivienne walked around the mages, fanning herself whilst Samara was with the biotics putting her effort forward as well. The mages kept their staves raised, creating mana chain links that circled the gathered biotics. Pentagrams glowed beneath every person putting forth their best effort. Vivienne walked to the edge of tower, the top floor had slits in them that exposed it to the air. She watched the pods slam into the blue barrier and grinned to herself.

"An absolute defence around the planet, and an absolute defence around the fortress itself," she mused.

On the castle walls, the gunners and archers looked up in awe and some even cheered prematurely. In space however, Dalak reanalysed his strategy, having Castillon stop the teleportation. He had a branch of his fleet break off, Castillon's mages then resumed their chants. Red portals appeared in space and the two cult destroyers flew through it. The two ships appeared behind Guldo's fleet and began hitting them with turbo laser fire.

"The battle must still be fought on the ground, the Grievious and Maul still have full contingents of fighters, have them split from the fleet, move to this position," Dalak pointed to the said place on his map.

Both ships fired turbo lasers at their pursuers, suffering some damage. But they held out well, long enough to fly through a portal conjured by the cult mages. At this point, and with that strain, the mages stopped, rested and waited. Dalak had his ship move into the fray, crossing past Guldo's flag ship. Cannons on the starboard side of the ship aimed at the Hammerhead's hull, and began to fire. They released missiles that latched onto the ship, drilling into its hull. Cult troopers breached the ship, firing blasters into the security teams Guldo posted in those areas. Biotics and flames flared, many of the troopers were from differing universes, but the republic ship was not exclusive to its troops.

"Many of our key positions fell because we didn't know what we were up against, or had no way of countering them," Shepard had said at the briefing. "I suggest we surprise them when they try to breach our ships."

So when the cult troopers moved past a blast door, they were met by electricity and blue energy. In a flash of magic, Zither cut through two troopers with his arcane blade. The former Inquisition operative and Dalish arcane warrior twirled his staff around, expanding his blade and then crashing it through a trooper's chest. Another trooper rushed to his side, swinging a vibrosword at him. There was a 'bamf' and flash of blue, before the trooper's head was cut off. An N7 Slayer Vanguard sheathed his sword, pulling a Phaeston rifle from his back.

"Try to keep up human," Zither smirked as troopers came at them from both sides.

One fired his rifle, and the other released lightning from his finger tips. In the hanger area, fighters were blown aside as breach missiles pierced through the hull. The hatches on the missiles opened and cult troopers ran out, shooting at the pilots and engineers. Biotic shockwaves threw some of the troopers back, but others replied with their own biotic barriers or armour reinforce tech. Red armoured men walked through the troopers, igniting the light sabers they held.

"Obviously I hope we won't just stop at personnel either," Cora pointed out a good point at the briefing, one that was followed through.

A Jedi Knight stepped past his troops, igniting his blue light saber. Behind him, the templar knights and Kirkwall guardsmen activated the Omni-shields and electro staves they had been given. They lined up in a phalanx formation, with the knight leading them.

"May the force be with us," he said before he ran forward with his troops.

* * *

Soldiers on the castle walls of Sanctuary watched in shock as the cult ships emerged from their barrier, opening fire on the barrier. Samara and her group wavered only for a moment, but didn't give up. Fighters were released by the cult, adding to the bombardment of Sanctuary. Suddenly, a familiar blue blast slammed into the side of one of the cult ships.

"You didn't think a barrier would be our only defence did you," Joker said.

The Normandy flew over the horizon, firing another blast from the Thannix cannon. It cut through several cult fighters before hitting the other ship's thrusters. Behind the Normandy, Scout and Strike class fighters of the Sith empire and the future Old republic split, moving like a swarm around the Normandy and unleashing laser and photon torpedoes on the cult forces.

"Focus fire on one point of the barrier," the captain of one of the ships said.

They fired volley after volley of torpedoes, hitting the barrier and creating flashes of explosions across it.

"RAMMING SPEED!" he yelled.

"Oh no," Joker whispered.

Samara and the other biotics fell to their knees and the mages staves sparked. The cult ship had slammed into the barrier, shattering it with its destruction. Cult fighters began shooting on the streets, bombing the districts and throwing soldiers off of the walls. Cannons and vehicles were decimated, Mako and Hammerhead tanks getting thrown across the streets.

* * *

"There is something else you're not considering," the Warden had spoken coherently once at the briefing, and when he did speak all eyes were on him.

"What haven't we considered, defence, offence, our path is set is it not?" Vivienne asked.

"There's always something to consider in a battle," Revan said and Shepard nodded his head.

"Bastila's battle meditation, it's a unique force ability, but from what you've told me about the force, it shouldn't be impossible for someone else to learn it," the Warden explained.

Looks of dread crossed those from the republic universe, those whom knew war, like the Arishok, Cassandra and Blackwall, as well as members of Shepard's crew knew what the Warden was theorising.

"That's it, what we missed, the reason why the cult was able to decimate our forces so quickly," Revan said.

"Under the influence of battle meditation, an enemies disarray or surprise would be amplified," the Warden said.

"They have force users capable of using battle meditation," Bastila gasped.

"Sometimes when two forces of equal power collide, they cancel each other out," Liara said.

"So Bastila's battle meditation would protect us from the effects of the enemy's battle meditation," Cassandra said.

"And vice versa," Cora added.

"Which will leave many other aspects of the battle, we know they're getting reinforcements, we're out numbered, they've had longer to train together and they're willing to cross lines that we won't," the Warden explained.

"Like blood magic," Dorian said.

"I'm thinking more along the lines of suicide attacks, they certainly fit the psychological mould for it," Garrus said.

"Force," Mission muttered.

"We're fighting to protect, they're fighting to destroy, history shows at least in our universe that those whom are dedicated to destruction do not hesitate to cross any line," the Warden explained.

His words were personified by the Grievious's ramming attack, its destruction rained debris on the city. Drop pods emerged from the wreckage, slamming into the streets. Already cult fighters were firing into the city streets, or crashing down.

"We need guaranteed kill shots people, or they'll just turn themselves into projectiles," Joker stated.

The Normandy shook as it was grazed by blaster fire. Joker dived, pulling the Normandy low across the ground, fighters bombarding the path behind him. He pulled up, then span the Normandy into a turn, letting the Normandy's guardian lasers do the rest to destroy the fighters pursuing him.

"How are we holding up Adams?" Joker asked.

"A minor fire has broken out, port side has sustained some damage and we lost one of the Javelin torpedo bays," the chief engineer explained.

"Just another day on the Normandy then?" Joker grinned.

He swerved, firing another shot from the Thannix cannon into the Maul.

"By my calculations we've hit their auxiliary power systems," EDI's avatar said.

"Intercepting chatter," Sarah stood at her console, pushing her headset to her ear. "They're preparing to deploy tanks and other heavy vehicles," she reported.

The Maul opened its main hanger hatch, dropping to the ground hover tanks and walkers that landed outside the city gates. They fired their artillery cannons, hitting the walls through the gaps in the barrier. In the circle tower, Samara stood whilst others around her fell with nose bleeds. Some of the mages replenished their mana with potions, whilst others had simply passed out.

"Damn," Vivienne checked over one of the mages, stepping over them and looking out at the barrier.

There was a huge gap in it, other points only had half biotic walls covering it, and other areas were flickering. Republic soldiers fired the heavy cannons at the fighters flying through the sky. On the streets below them, cult troopers marched through, but were suddenly met by volleys of arrows. Orlesian soldiers fired arrows enhanced with alloys provided by the republic, hitting through the gaps in the cult armour. One of the troopers fired his gatling gun, cutting down a line of the soldiers. As the other troopers took back roads, the squadrons split apart, individual troopers removing bags of blood from their packs. They spilt the blood across the floor, and cut their own hands. With their magic they ripped open the fade, turning the rings of blood into fire, or oil, bringing forth demons of wrath and terror. Shades began coming out of the alleyways, grabbing allied soldiers and dragging them screaming into the bloody shadows.

"Move to the Chantry, then the senate building, if you find the Empress or anyone of authority don't get trigger happy," a cult trooper commander led his troops through the streets.

His helmet had a visor over his lenses, and his right shoulder pad was thicker than the others. He carried in his hand an electro-staff. When he came to a crossroad on the streets he stopped. Suddenly, he grabbed one of his soldiers, pulling him in front just as a bullet sailed into the young man's face. The commander looked across the street, still holding his lifeless shield. Garrus looked through the scope of his mantis, clicking his mandibles in frustration, he had a guaranteed kill shot before, but had now lost the element of surprise.

"Sniper," the commander called out to one of his troopers.

That trooper carried a rocket launcher, and aimed it at Garrus's perch. But just when he was about to fire, an explosive went off on his side, throwing that trooper and two others back. The commander raised his hand, activating an Omni-shield and protecting himself from the projectiles the debris had become. More explosives went off, and not too far from Garrus's perch, Bain tossed his remote detonator up and down.

"Here's your opening love," he said.

Smoke bombs went off near the cult commander's feet. He stepped to the side, dodging fuse bombs thrown at him from the smoke. Activating his staff, he parried the dagger of an assassin, Argent of the Inquisition. Then he turned, backhanding Zevran before he could lunge with his daggers. The commander then ducked, dodging Isabela's round house kick. She landed in a crouched position behind him, widening her eyes in shock as the commander used his staff to block a sniper round.

"No way those are human reflexes," Garrus muttered, ejecting his thermal clip.

He focused on his target as the man engaged the three assassins at close quarters. Though he had a heavier weapon, he utilised the reach well. Neither fighters could get close, parrying his strikes and staying on the defensive. Isabela dodged one of his thrusts and moved towards him with her dagger ready. But he jumped back, pushing his staff against the ground and turning the dodge into a kick to Argent's chest. He then swung around and knocked Isabela back. Just as Garrus was about to fire, the commander moved into one of the alleyways, the assassins giving chase.

Zevran and Argent had the greater experience in fighting, Isabela avoided fights, but she was adaptive and quick. Her expertise in fighting came from repeatedly being in dangerous situations. Argent and Zevran studied the discipline of fighting, and they such discipline in how the commander wielded his staff. He wielded it the same way a trained spear fighter would, using quick thrusts to keep his opponents back. Which is what he did, walking backwards through the alley and knocking off their attacks with his strikes. When he came to the end of the corridor, he came to a squadron of cult battle droids, all of them equipped with Omni-armour. Zevran quickly threw a smoke bomb to the ground. The three assassins climbed onto the rooftops, escaping the blaster fire that filled the alleyway.

"Forget them, continue searching for the empress or any senators you can find," the commander said.

* * *

Shepard, Ashley and Javik walked through the streets of Sanctuary, shooting any cult soldiers they could find. They came across the Republic trooper they met earlier, they knew her only by her call sign Meteor. She was shooting at cult troopers alongside her squad or white armoured troopers.

"Commander, cut through that alleyway, take a left, go down the hill and then take a right, follow the alley path and you'll be able to flank them," she explained.

"You recognise this street?" Shepard asked.

"It's a part of one of the districts of Coruscant, now hit their flanks," Meteor fired her chain gun, keeping the cult troopers pinned.

The three squad mates ran down the path Meteor had set for them. Javik blasted repurposed Geth drones out of the sky and Ashley vaporised droids on the path ahead with her chemical rounds. Shepard activated his new Omni-shield, using it to block blaster fire coming at him from cult troopers. He fired back with his Revenant, cutting through their shields with Proton rounds and overwhelming them with the Revenant's sheer fire power. They came to the hill Meteor spoke of, only for a republic fighter to crash in their path, setting fires in some of the buildings.

"Damn, debris's blocked our path Meteor, any suggestions?" Shepard asked.

"You'll need to find another way, a little busy here Commander, they just pulled up some heavy assault druids," Meteor's voice was followed by the sound of repeated blaster fire.

Shepard looked around, seeing if an alternative path could be found through the buildings. He and Ashley looked at Javik with surprise when he suddenly yelped. The last Prothean fired his rifle, shooting a hole in the wall, inches from Cole's head.

"The primitive just suddenly appeared, he must possess some kind of stealth tech," Javik said.

"No tech, just help," Cole said, pointing up.

Shepard followed the young man's direction, to the rooftops.

"That's it, Javik lift Ashley and me onto the roof," he commanded.

Javi grudgingly put his rifle on his back, his green biotics flaring. With movements of his hands, he raised Shepard and Ashley off of the ground. They landed roughly on the rooftops, and after recovering broke off into a run across the buildings. Shepard looked to the sky and though the fighters clashing and crashing with what was left of the barrier was a sight, his attention was drawn to the smaller objects. Cult soldiers with jetpacks, shooting blaster pistols at Shepard and Ashley. They stopped, shooting at the jet troopers, both switching to Inferno rounds and targeting the packs. A missile was fired onto the rooftop and Shepard and Ashley were thrown back.

"ASH!" Shepard yelled, seeing Ashley go off the roof.

She landed on the street below, groaning as she got up off the floor.

"Damn it, keep going Shepard," she said.

Shepard followed where the missile could have come from. He looked to a man in black and red armour, the jets on his back blazing as he flew around Shepard's position. The man had a T shaped visor on his helmet and wrist weapons. He fired a cable at Shepard, wrapping around his arms and chest.

"No," Shepard exclaimed, feeling the mercenary lift him off of the floor.

He was dragged away from the roof, legs dangling and his eyes looking at the streets below him.

"Screw it," he said, cutting through the wire with his Omni-blade.

Shepard crashed into a Ferelden market district, his Revenant sliding across the brick floor.

"Meteor, sorry, looks like we won't be able to flank those cult soldiers, we've been separated," Shepard said through his radio.

"We took a few hits ourselves, the guy in the armour was a Mandalorian," Meteor said.

"Mandalorian you say," a voice echoed through the radio.

A blast flew into the Mandalorian's jetpack, cutting open a leak. He yelled as he crashed into the ground, his armour offering him some protection from the fall. The armoured man looked up, meeting a metallic boot. Thrown back by the kick, he looked up again and saw Canderous, a blood thirsty grin spread across the man's face.

"Stay out of my way old man," he growled.

"Old man huh? All right, let's see if you can beat this old man without your toys," Canderous challenged.

"A warrior uses every advantage he possesses, including reinforcements," the Mandalorian said.

Jet troopers hover around Canderous, aiming rocket launchers and pistols at him. But he wasn't bothered. Spears suddenly flew at the troopers. Arishok and a few Qunari warriors threw their spears at the aerial opponents. On one of the adjoining rooftops, Liara stood with Oghren and Mission. She surrounded Oghren with a biotic barrier and threw him towards one of troopers. He swung his axe, crashing it through the man's visor. Then he jumped, slicing off another trooper's head before landing on yet another one. He put him on a crash course with the ground, jumping off at the last second.

"You were saying?" Canderous asked, smirking as the Mandalorian's hands shook.

The Mandalorian let out a roar before firing his pistols at Canderous. He rolled to cover, then ran and returned fire. A bolt hit Canderous's shoulder, and one of his own blasts struck the Mandalorian's knee. The young man fired a cable, catching Canderous's repeater and pulling it out of his grip. He then activated his flame thrower, catching Canderous's back as he rolled behind a set of crates.

"You're a relic old man, my armour far surpasses your generation's," the Mandalorian said.

Canderous huffed, activating his duelling shied. He injected adrenaline and strength stims into his arm. Drawing a pair of vibroblades from his hips, he grinned, losing himself in the battle before he ran at his opponent. The Mandalorian consumed him in flames, but to his shock, Canderous had projection. Not only that but the sheer heat and pain didn't bother him.

"It isn't all about the armour kid," he said, slashing his opponent's left gauntlet.

The Mandalorian slid a blade out of his second gauntlet, thrusting it and cutting Canderous's cheek. Canderous slashed the second gauntlet, throwing both blades aside and grappling with his opponent. He broke the young man's arm, and then kicked his blasted knee.

"Our armour didn't have all those added gadgets on it, we had only discipline, skill and will, and we still made the republic tremble before we fell," Canderous explained, lifting the Mandalorian up by his neck.

"If you're the future of the Mandalorians, then I weep for it," he slammed his unconscious opponent to the ground. "All that, without having to wear the armour," Canderous punched his chest proudly.

* * *

Vandar and the other Jedi masters watched the battle from the command centre, Dodonna shouting orders to the fleet. They closed their eyes, feeling the battle taking place around them.

"Disturbance there is," Vandar said.

"The Warden was right, there is another besides Bastila using battle meditation," Vrook said.

"Our forces are holding the line as best they can, they've broken through our barrier defence in the city, but our soldiers still stand. They're throwing lives away and for what?" Dorak asked.

"I believe they have a plan, they were willing to lose a ship to get people inside the city, there must be a reason for that," Zhar explained.

* * *

Shepard wiped the dust off of his armour, picking up his Revenant and checking over the damage. It was still in working order, though he would need to load another ammo upgrade into it.

"Ashley, where are you, are you all right?" he asked over the radio.

"I'm all right Shepard, it looks like one of the places from Thedas, medieval architecture, wood and stone," Ashley explained.

"Actually it is from a place called Tatooine!"

Ashley aimed her rifle down the end of the alleyway. A man in robes stood there, a red opera styled mask covered his eyes and a hood his hair. He wore clawed gauntlets common of knights, and a confident smile.

"A desert world with many suns, apparently people age faster there, but that can be inconsistent, much like the parsec, but I digress..." he clapped his hands together, sparks of red electricity emanating from them.

Desire and Pride demons slowly rose behind him, their eyes glowing red as they looked at Ashley and laughed.

"My friends here will be tearing you apart now Miss, please don't take it personally," he said before he clicked his fingers together.

The demons rushed towards Ashley as the barrel of her rifle blazed.

Next Chapter 10: Demon streets

* * *

Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter, and the cameos, I admit I didn't do a lot of Dragon Age Inquisition's Multiplayer, but Mass Effect 3 multiplayer was my favourite thing at the time (beats Mass Effect Andromeda Multiplayer in my opinion).


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Age, Mass Effect or Star Wars

* * *

Gathering Darkness: Bio-Merge

Chapter 10: Demon streets

The mage walked through the portal, into the Fade, or what he had come to call 'the dark fade'. This place was more twisted than the dimension spirits occupied. There were worse creatures here than what the corrupted spirits could become. The elf felt the creatures scurry around him, heard the distant booms of creatures as big as cities, and smelt the foul stenches of bogs and swamps that contained all manner of deadly monsters. But they all paled in comparison to whom he was facing. The darkness swirled in front of him like smoke, gathering at a single point. Two eyes then glowed through the darkness, red eye that pierced the elf's usually collected defences.

"Master Onyx," the elf whispered his master's name.

_**"Sanctuary, where the light is at its strongest, where the light gathered the cities and the protectors. But the war will not end with its destruction," **_the being said.

Though he had seen it take the form of a human man, the elf could only describe Onyx as a being. Humans of one universe called it 'devil', there was no singular embodiment of evil in the Thedas culture and nor was there in the republic universe. Though perhaps they thought of it as the embodiment of the dark side. Often they said aspects of the Force had a will, though it felt too much like belief in the divine. Whenever he was in the presence of his master, the elf felt like believing in gods, or at least in devils.

"But, surely with all the protectors dead..." the elf lowered his head as the eyes glowed brighter.

_**"Never underestimate the power of the light of the heart. Wipe out every single warrior, and you will find other warriors will rise up. So long as there is even a single person whom believes in hope, then the light will not fade. The light may have conjured Sanctuary to combat us, but there is still the individual will of each person whom now calls this new universe home," **_Onyx explained.

"Then how master will we end this conflict?" the elf asked.

_**"Whoever said anything about ending it?"**_

* * *

Sanctuary

Wraiths, Shades, Rage demons, they slithered across the ground, crashing through soldiers in the streets. Pride Demons squashed them beneath their feet, and screams filled the alleyways and houses. Soldiers turned on one another, manipulated by the Desire demons behind them. They killed their allies, even friends under the belief they were threatening what they wanted to protect. Their desire to protect what they had left was turned against them. Yet still, their deaths were light in comparison to what victims of the Nightmares went through. The demons floated in the middle of groups of soldiers, all of them exposed to their greatest fears, literally frightened to death.

"Poor creatures," he muttered.

When the demons approached young elf soldiers, they were suddenly turned to stone. Solas walked in front of the elf soldiers, mere children in comparison to other hardened warriors fighting. He looked more at the demons with pity, for once they had been embodiments of more benevolent forms of emotion. He actually stroked the face of a Desire demon, once a demon of dreams.

"Forgive me," he said, before he raised his hand and formed a fist.

The statues in front of him were suddenly shattered. Solas looked up, seeing the cult fighters in the sky. He raised his hand and formed a protective shield over the district, insulating it from the blaster and torpedo fire.

"This new universe has twisted the natural balance, no, it has created a new balance, both light and dark tugging at the strings of creation, creating new possibilities," he mused. "Light and darkness, neither truly in the right, could this have been what I would have created...utter chaos, no," the elf shook his head, gritting his teeth together.

* * *

"HOLD THE LINE!" Iron Bull yelled.

He and his Chargers stood with Kirkwall soldiers with shields. They were in streets from Omega, the lights flaring alongside them. On the walkways, Vega hid with an N7 Paladin and a pair of soldiers, as well as some Alliance marines. Both Vega and Bull smirked as the legions of demons drew closer. First the traps Rocky set blew up, hitting some of the Shades with shrapnel. Then the 'traps' (because she's not a mage) Dalish set electrocuted others. The swarms of survivors rushed towards Bull's line of protectors. Vega and the others popped out of cover, shooting at the demons. Some broke through, but they were quickly and easily killed by Bull's warriors.

"Keep it steady," Krem said.

The sheer numbers of the demons wasn't enough for the gunfire alone, so some began to slam into the shield wall. Blaster fire then came down on the soldiers from above, cult fighters bombed the district. James was thrown off of the building, his rifle thrown from his grip. He got up off of the floor and suddenly felt a heavy pressure on his knees.

_"You left us!"_

_"Failed us Vega!"_

_"Said you would protect us!"_

He saw them, the colonists of Fehl Prime and his team.

_"Our job was to protect that colony Vega, you failed completely, for Intel that was useless to us," _Captain Toni said.

The image of his former captain suddenly turned into a Nightmare, swinging its claws at Vega. Suddenly, a green light sabre flashed through the Nightmare.

"Try to ignore them kid, it isn't real," Jolee said, landing in the middle of the nightmares.

_"Jolee, you failed me, failed as a teacher, as a husband," _said his wife.

_"Failed as a friend," _said Sundry.

_"You failed the force," _the council looked down on him.

"HA!" Jolee scoffed. "Is that the best you idiots have got?" he asked as he cut down the demons around him.

_"James, James," _a voice whispered to Vega.

He looked up and widened his eyes, looking down at him was a little girl. April, someone he had bonded with at Fehl Prime.

_"You were my hero James, you promised to keep me safe, you left me to die, why?"_

"I'm so sorry," James whispered.

His eyes narrowed in determination, wiping away the tears that would have formed. Grabbing his Equaliser, he put it to the girl's face. She snarled, becoming a Nightmare.

"You're not real," he said, blowing the demon's head off.

"That's it kid, get up," Jolee said.

James rose, cutting off a Nightmare's head with the bayonet on his shotgun. He shot another one, blowing open its chest. Then he ducked, avoiding Jolee's light sabre flying into two more Nightmares. As Jolee pushed two Shades back with the force, James moved in and shot them both.

"Keeping up old man?" James asked.

"Rather be on a beach sipping one of those 'ice teas'," Jolee huffed.

"You still got a few years left!" James laughed.

He stabbed one of his old allies in the chest, before shooting him to reveal a Nightmare. More and more colonists appeared around him, and shaking the distraction away, James picked up his rifle and shot them.

"I know I failed you, that the choice I made, made absolutely no difference at all. BUT ONE FAILURE IS NOT GOING TO STOP ME FROM MAKING A DIFFERENCE NOW!" he yelled.

"That's the spirit kid," Jolee said.

On the opposite part of the street, Bull and his chargers were in the fight. He crashed his axe through the skulls of demons as Krem cut through with his sword. A window smashed above them, and Drack crashed into the streets, landing on one of the cult troopers he was fighting. He laughed as he fired his Claymore and swung his hammer around. The Krogan imbedded his hammer in the face of a Shade, and picked up the Cult trooper by his leg. The man screamed as he was used as a make shift club, striking demons, his armour acting as the hard surface. Drack threw the trooper aside and reloaded his shotgun, firing again. Bull charged through the demons, cutting one before it could get to Drack.

"Want to trade?" he asked, looking to Drack's hammer.

Drack stroked his chin for a moment, before nodding his head. Both grinned, throwing their weapons to one another. Bull looked at the electrified hammer and whistled in awe. Then he slammed it into a Shade, coating the ground in guts.

"Oh MAGNIFICENT!" Bull yelled.

He and Drack then rushed back at the demons, turning them into defenders. Both laughing like mad men as they cleaved their way through them.

* * *

Ashley activated her Marksman tech, increasing her rate of fire, her rifle scope coming into focus on her targets. She fired one burst after another, killing Shades and Wrath demons left and right. A desire demon flew towards her, bearing her claws. Ashley rolled back, then hit the demon with a concussive round. When the demon fell to the floor, Ashley slid out her Omni-blade and stabbed her in the chest. As she yanked the blade free, she continued shooting at the wraiths and shades.

"Impressive, it seems I won't get to see you get torn apart, that doesn't mean you aren't going to die, I have comrades to keep safe after all," the masked man raised his hand, conjuring a line of fireballs.

Ashley rolled, dodging a few of the projectiles. One struck her, and her shields were suddenly drained. The warning alarm blaring in her ear, she decided to use her own fire. She threw her inferno grenades at the mage, who quickly raised a barrier over his body. The flames were enough to knock him back into the wall. Ashley ran forward, firing her rifle at the man. He touched the ground, creating a flurry of ice spikes. Ash rolled to the side at the last minute, only for an ice blast to hit her shoulder. She felt her left arm freeze, instinctively yelling out in pain.

"My apologies, I really don't want to make this painful, but needs must," the mage formed a javelin of ice, throwing it at Ashley.

She shattered the projectile with a concussive round. As her shields recharged, the mage shot fire from his hand. Ashley's shields faded and she jumped to the side. Taking cover behind some crates she pulled out her pistol, and fired at the mage. But as her bullets flew towards him, he summoned a few demons. The deaths of the shades mattered little to him, he used their energy to summon a greater beast. Ashley looked up into the eyes of a Pride demon, towering over the Tatooine hovels, saliva dripping from its teeth.

* * *

Shepard walked amongst the wreckage of several downed republic and Alliance fighters. He looked up at the dog fights that dominated the sky and then at the distant coursing of magic and blazing fires from explosions. This was the war he thought would dominate Earth, that would dominate the galaxy. But this dark cult, dominated by hatred, was only the start. The Reapers were still out there. Shepard took a few more steps forward, before stopping and freezing on the spot. Everything suddenly felt cold, snow appeared at his feet and darkness surrounded him. This forest was one he recognised. It had been in his nightmares every night since he left Earth at the mercy of the Reapers.

"I don't regret a thing commander," he heard the familiar voice of he whom he left behind at Virmire.

"Had to be me Shepard, someone else would have gotten it wrong," he whom sacrificed himself to atone.

"Shepard," he whom had been murdered by Kai Leng.

"I know Tali, I know," 'he' whom had sacrificed existence for peace.

Shepard kept his rifle ready, narrowing his eyes at the silhouettes walking out of the trees. Kaidan, Thane, Legion and Mordin, they walked around him, words they once spoke whispering in his ears. Like distant voices they echoed.

"Just rest Shepard," he froze upon hearing the voice of someone who shouldn't be here.

"It's time to stop Shepard," he turned and saw her.

"Miranda," he whispered.

She was there, seemingly as real, and as beautiful as the days they met on the SR2. Her hips swayed as she walked towards Shepard.

"The Reapers are gone Shepard, we can stop fighting, come with me..."

**(Renegade Interrupt)**

Shepard fired his gun, hitting 'Miranda' in the chest, her form replaced with that of an angry desire demon.

"Very well, keep your Reapers," she swung her arm around, lashing out at Shepard.

Everything went white and Shepard found himself in front of Miranda again.

"The Reapers are gone Shepard, we can stop fighting, come with me Shepard," she said, grabbing the barrel of the rifle.

He took a step back and kept it aimed at her. She stepped to the side, running her hand over the top of the rifle.

**(Renegade Interrupt)**

Shepard activated his Omni-tool and slashed her across the throat.

He opened his eyes and blinked in confusion.

'What the hell is going on?'

Shepard saw the love of his life standing there, lowering his rifle, touching his hand.

"The Reapers are gone Shepard, we can stop fighting, come with me Shepard."

**"(Renegade response) Is that the best you can do demon?"**

'Miranda's' face shifted, her teeth growing longer as she snarled.

"The Reapers are gone Shepard, we can stop fighting, come with me Shepard."

'Again, what the hell is going on?' Shepard wondered.

She drew closer to him, drawing her lips towards his.

_(Paragon Interrupt)_

Shepard moved his head back and then stepped aside, raising his rifle.

_"(Paragon response) I do want a life with Miranda, but the fight isn't over yet," _he said with determination.

Again there was that flash.

"Come with me Shepard," her lips made contact with his, they felt so much like Miranda's.

'But she's not, she's not,' Shepard told himself.

There was a crackle of green energy, and Miranda was suddenly thrown away from Shepard. He was pulled back, watching as the forest was wiped away, and Miranda's skin burned, revealing the Desire demon underneath. The trees of the forest turned into Sloth abominations, roaring in anger. Shepard fell onto his back, quickly rising and looking to his flanks. One of Revan's companions, the cat like woman, clad in her blue clothes and orange armour, her blue energy sword drawn. And a tanned man with fine hair and a moustache. He wore white robes and leather armour and held a staff with a skull on the end. Green energy crackled between his fingertips.

"Commander," Dorian nodded to the man.

"Something happened just now," Shepard said.

"I could sense it," Juhani added.

"The distortion in the air, I've seen this at Redcliffe, my old teacher Alexius perfected a form of time magic, perhaps this is something similar," Dorian explained.

"Temporal anomalies, great, looks like the demons are using that to their advantage," Shepard stated, aiming his rifle at the demons.

"I know a way to at least prevent the loops," Dorian raised his hand, aiming it at the demons.

The green energy formed a rune with four clock symbols on it. With a turn of his hand, Dorian altered the position of the clock hands. As the demons slowed down, Juhani jumped forward and Shepard fired a few bursts from his rifle. He obliterated two Sloth demons with inferno rounds. Juhani slashed through the Desire demon and stabbed her sabre through a Sloth demon's chest. Dorian slammed his staff into the ground, creating pillars of fire around the remaining two Sloth demons.

"Everyone, we need to regroup and form up, lose a little ground so we can better defend the ground we have," Shepard said over the radio.

"Roger that Shepard," Garrus said.

He and Jaal jumped off of their sniping perches and made their way through the streets with Andromeda and republic soldiers. Templars and alliance marines retreated with Blackwall and T3. The droid turned down a street filled with demons and sprayed the entrance with oil. Blackwall then dragged his sword across the ground, creating a spark that lit the oil. Zevran, Isabela and Argent jumped off of the roofs, landing in front of Blackwall and the droid.

"We're regrouping to the Embassy offices," Garrus said.

It was what he called the area, as it was the old human, Volus and Elcor embassy area of the Citadel, merged with one of the Bridge walkways of Taris and the Lothering chantry.

"We have people stuck behind enemy lines," Cora said over the radio.

"The likelihood of us being able to hold ground by splitting forces to reinforce is 80 to 1," EDI said.

"Statement: I agree with the meat bag copy cat, death for those left behind is extremely likely," said HK.

"Then we don't deploy an army," Revan suggested.

Whilst the others retreated, Revan moved forward. He ignited his light sabre and accessed the force. Concentrating, he focused on his legs and on their connection with the ground. Fatigue was temporarily forgotten, as was the muscle strength of his legs. Revan flowed across the road, a purple flash to the cult troopers and demons he cut through. Jumping high into the air, he reached out through the force. Dust was drawn towards him, before he threw himself the distance between himself and the battle engaged allies. Liam and Bethany were pinned, their Grey Warden and Andromeda initiative allies dead around them. When Revan landed, he created a boom with the force, throwing away the cult troopers. Igniting his sabre, he pointed it at the generals walking through the chaos. Both wore armour and robes, and ignited the light sabres they carried.

* * *

The Cult troopers and mages ran through the streets, leaving in their wake the bodies of republic and alliance soldiers alike. A few of the Cult dark Jedi finished off some of the wounded. There was a moment that passed before all hell broke loose, fireballs came down at them, crashing into the cult ranks. The firestorm swept around, crashing like a wave and knocking a few of the cultists back. They looked up, the Dark Jedi igniting their blades as a figure walked through the flames. The Warden walked through, the flames. His armour though was different, heavier, his Juggernaut armour set though he still had the fur on his collar and his unique styled helmet, but a silver colour. He held in his left hand the Yusaris great sword, resting the blade on his shoulder. The cult soldiers shuffled their feet back, seeing the red eye glowing through his visor.

"I can feel your anger," one of the Dark Jedi said.

"And if you have no desire to taste it," the Warden pointed his sword at the cultists, flames spreading across the blade. "Tell me where the man who killed Divine Victoria is, NOW!"

Next Chapter 11: Three Heroes

* * *

Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter, once again I wanted to group certain characters together for some fan pleasing moments. The 'temporal anomaly' was a little twist, and a nod to reloading saves.


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